Marcus Trescothick’s “extraordinarily brave” autobiography, according to judge John Inverdale, was this afternoon named as the winner of the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.
The book, Coming Back to Me, co-written with SJA member Peter Hayter, charts the Somerset and England batsman’s role in the historic 2005 Ashes series and his battles with depression that have since seen him drop out of international cricket.
“This is only the second autobiography to win the Award,” said Hill’s spokesman and founder of the prize, Graham Sharpe, “The judges felt it fearlessly tackled one of the great taboos of elite sport.”
Trescothick received a winner’s cheque for £20,000 at a ceremony at Waterstone’s in Piccadilly, London, as the 20th winner of this award.
“It felt all a bit strange,” Trescothick said after receiving the award from Olympic gold medal-winning athlete Michael Johnson, “I nearly started to cry a bit.”
Other books shortlisted for the 2008 award were:
John Carlin – Playing the Enemy; Nelson Mandela And The Game That Made A Nation
Janie Hampton – The Austerity Olympics: When the Games Came To London in 1948
Rowan Simons – Bamboo Goalposts: One Man’s Quest to Teach The People’s Republic of China To Love Football
Jeremy Whittle – Bad Blood: The Secret Life Of The Tour de France
Jonathan Wilson – Inverting the Pyramid: A History Of Football Tactics
The five other finalists all collected £2,000 cash, a £1,000 William Hill bet and a leather-bound copy of their book.
To order Trescothick’s book on Amazon, click here.
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