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Trescothick wins William Hill

24.11.08 | Katie Allen

Former England batsman Marcus Trescothick has won the 2008 William Hill Sports book of the year for his autobiography Coming Back to Me (Harper). It is the second consecutive year that a HarperCollins title has won the award after last year's Provided You Don’t Kiss me (HarperPerennial).

Trescothick and his co-writer, Peter Hayter were awarded £20,000, a £2,000 William Hill bet and a hand-bound copy of the book by master binder David Sellars.

Tom Whiting, editorial director for Harper Non-Fiction, said: "The most recent World Cup was the nadir for sports autobiographies because the England football team didn't perform yet there were a lot of books out."

He added: "With Marcus, the book is not just about the celebration of an event, it's about his life and what he has gone through. That has taken him a huge amount of bravery to come out and say what he has said in the book. It's the baring of the soul and not just his but his whole family's. The judges realised that here was something unique, a once-in-a-generation book to be rewarded.

"There's not a huge amount of cricketing detail in there. It's really the details of his mental degradation that is at the forefront of the book."

Joe Browes, sports buyer at Waterstone's, said: "It's a really brave book. There tends to be a focus in sports books on the invincible everyman but everyone knows that the true heroes have an Achilles heel. This book stands alongside books like Tony Adams' and Paul Gascoigne's
autobiographies."

He added, "There's an extraordinary level of humanity that is usually missing from a lot of ghostwritten books."

The prize, which is in its 20th year, was announced by judge John Inverdale, at Waterstone's Piccadilly, London. The prize was presented by Olympic Gold medal-winning athlete, Michael Johnson, who is currently working on a book of his own.

The other shortlisted titles were: John Carlin's Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela And The Game That Made A Nation (Atlantic); Janie Hampton's The Austerity Olympics: When the Games Came To London in 1948 (Aurum); Rowan Simons' Bamboo Goalposts: One Man's Quest to Teach The People's Republic of China To Love Football (Macmillan); Jeremy Whittle's Bad Blood: The Secret Life Of The Tour de France (Yellow Jersey); and Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid: A History Of Football Tactics (Orion).

Last year’s winner was Provided You Don’t Kiss me by Duncan Hamilton (HarperPerennial).

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