• The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award - The Racket by Conor Niland
  • The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award - These Heavy Black Bones by Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell
  • The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award - When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black by Harry Edward
  • The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award - Unique: A Memoir by Kelly Holmes
  • The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award - Munichs by David Peace
  • The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award - My Beautiful Sisters: A Story of Courage, Hope and the Afghan Women’s Football Team by Khalida Popal

The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award, recommended by Alyson Rudd

Good sports writing should appeal not only to fans but also to readers with no special connection to a sport, says Alyson Rudd, chair of the judging panel of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. She talks us through the six excellent books that made the 2024 shortlist, from life on the lower rungs of the tennis circuit to women’s football in Afghanistan.

  • The best books on Surfing - Da Bull: Life Over the Edge by Andrea Gabbard & Greg Noll
  • The best books on Surfing - Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
  • The best books on Surfing - No Bad Waves: Talking Story with Mickey Munoz by Yvon Chouinard
  • The best books on Surfing - Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
  • The best books on Surfing - Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku by David Davis

The best books on Surfing, recommended by Gerry Lopez

The second best thing about surfing is talking about it afterward. Surf legend Gerry ‘Mr Pipeline’ Lopez’s collection of surfing stories Surf is Where You Find It, now out in its third edition, relates some of the epic waves he’s encountered, and the legendary individuals he met along the way in a lifetime’s pursuit of the glide on the ocean and on the land. Here, he picks five books on surfing by friends and heroes who have found lessons in surfing about what it means to live life well.

  • The best books on Wanderlust - Just Kids by Patti Smith
  • The best books on Wanderlust - Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  • The best books on Wanderlust - Bruce Weber: Branded Youth by Bruce Weber
  • The best books on Wanderlust - DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys by C. R. Stecyk III & Glen E. Friedman
  • The best books on Wanderlust - Uncommon Places by Stephen Shore

The best books on Wanderlust, recommended by Matthew Brookes & Zack Raffin

What does it mean to live wild and young and free? We asked the authors of a photography book on surf van culture along the California coast—”a story of youth choosing to follow their dreams, living out of vans, existing for surf and travel and freedom, and always chasing the best waves”—for references that help answer this question. Wanderlust can be a philosophy for life, as these books illustrate beautifully.

  • The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics - The Politics of the Olympic Games by Richard Espy
  • The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics - Five Ring Circus: Money, Power, and Politics at the Olympic Games by Alan Tomlinson and Garry Whannel
  • The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics - The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money, and Drugs in the Modern Olympics by Vyv Simson and Andrew Jennings
  • The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics - Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj
  • The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics - Hosting the Olympic Games: the Real Costs for Cities by John Rennie Short

The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics, recommended by Helen J Lenskyj

The Olympics are big business—but the extent to which they benefit their host cities is increasingly called into question. They’ve also long been enmired in political controversy. Here Helen J Lenskyj, the academic and anti-Olympics activist, discusses the malign influence of big business, and the inseparability of sport and politics, as she chooses her best books on the bad side of the Olympics.

  • The best books on Sports Psychology - The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
  • The best books on Sports Psychology - Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect by Bob Rotella
  • The best books on Sports Psychology - Zen Putting: Mastering the Mental Game on the Greens by Joseph Parent
  • The best books on Sports Psychology - Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time by Ken Ravizza & Tom Hanson
  • The best books on Sports Psychology - The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, And Thrive by Jim Afremow

The best books on Sports Psychology, recommended by Bill Cole

What do you think about when you’re training at the gym, or on the tennis court? And what should you think about, if your goal is maximizing performance and results? Seasoned sports psychologist Bill Cole, coach for numerous Olympic teams and top-level international athletes, reveals that the number one road block to athletic performance often isn’t physical—it’s overthinking.