Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs by Rodge Glass – review
A once-promising footballer blames Ryan Giggs for his downfall in Rodge Glass's compelling taleSatisfying fictional stories set in the world of professional football are thin on the ground – thanks, perhaps, to the surfeit of real-life tales of outst...
Strong Woman: Ambition, Grit and a Great Pair of Heels by Karren Brady – review
The businesswoman and Apprentice star shines when she drops the corporate line and gets personalKarren Brady is one of the UK's best-known businesswomen. From the age of 18 she worked for Saatchi & Saatchi before moving on to David Sullivan's Sport new...
The Spirit of the Game: How Sport Made the Modern World by Mihir Bose – review
An ambitious history of modern sport is thoroughly entertaining but fails to go the distanceA royal anniversary is, in any normal year, one of the biggest events in the British cultural calendar. But in 2012 it will face stiff competition. England...
Inside the Divide: One City, Two Teams… The Old Firm by Richard Wilson – review
Kevin McKenna enjoys an insightful and wonderfully written account of the fierce rivalry between Glasgow's two football clubsI was 15 years old when, on 21 May 1979, I witnessed my first Celtic v Rangers match. My father, in common with other responsib...
Jumpers for Goalposts: how football sold its soul – extract | Rob Smyth and Georgina Turner
In an extract from their new book, Rob Smyth and Georgina Turner recall the days when footballers could eat, drink and still be merry on the fieldOf the many ways a fan could relate to a player in the past, few were greater than the sight of a man whee...
Christmas books: A Life Too Short by Ronald Reng
A poignant analysis chronicling the effects of depression on Robert Enke, the German goalkeeper who took his own lifeGreat sportswriting, wrote the American journalist and broadcaster Dick Schaap, "tells us as much about life as about sport" and his ve...
Books for giving: sport
From heroic misery memoirs to the fans' eye view, it was a winning year for sports booksIt would be easy to indict the judges of this year's William Hill prize – sportswriting's Booker – for opportunist cynicism in selecting Ronald Reng's A Life To...
William Hill award won by Ronald Reng’s biography of Robert Enke
• Judges praise book on goalkeeper who took his own life• A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke 'outstanding'Ronald Reng has won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2011 for A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke. Reng's bio...
Vertigo: One Football Fan’s Fear of Success by John Crace – review
A Spurs fan and depressed? It's understandableWho is John Crace? To you, the Guardian reader, he's that talented chap who has, in the past 10 years, turned his Digested Read column into a national institution. But that, judging by his new boo...
Among the Fans by Patrick Collins – review
A year spent watching fans watching their favourite teamsThe trouble with today's sports fans, Patrick Collins believes, is that so many of them are less interested in seeing than in being seen, usually by the television cameras. He is particularly vex...
I’m Not Really Here by Paul Lake – review | Daniel Taylor
The harrowing and gripping story of a Manchester City football hero's descent from cherished asset to tormented soulPaul Lake's career as a footballer was cut so short, so mangled by misfortune, we will never know how far the game would have taken him,...
My dad John White, the Spurs legend
Footballer John White was killed by lightning in 1964, aged 27, leaving behind a widow, two children and a legacy of match moments. His son Rob has been trying to build a sense of the father he knew only from other people's memoriesThere's an old black...
