Sadly, no blistering new memoir this year from Max Mosley — A Study In Scarlet: the History of the Whip (published by the British Horseracing Authority) — but there have been plenty of wonderful sporting books this year. Too many to list obviously, so I have chosen just four and, in the Leveson spirit of full and frank confession, all written by or about people I know and admire.
Paul Kimmage’s Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson tells the extraordinary story of the England Under-21 tight head prop who broke his neck on the training ground in 2005 when the scrum collapsed on him, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. The narrative is multilayered and complex, using courtroom script devices borrowed from The Shawshank Redemption to explore how Hampson sees — and is seen by — the people around him. It is a profoundly moving story, very sad, very angry and astoundingly uplifting. It is funny, unbearably moving and utterly compelling, and reveals a great deal about the dark arts of the front row forward. ‘Engage’ was the last word Hampson heard before his shocking accident. ‘I’ll be a better person for this,’ he tells his father after the accident. Anyone who reads this book will be too.
The Following Game (Peridot), by Jonathan Smith, is an exquisite volume that defies genre. It is philosophical, beautifully written, funny and wonderfully erudite, as you would expect from a man who has devoted his life to teaching English at Tonbridge school. Smith has always loved cricket, and the book is about poetry and family and cover drives, but above all it is about a father’s love for his son. Smith jr is Ed Smith, the writer and broadcaster (and colleague of mine) who played cricket for Kent, Middlesex and England.
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