Best Book accolade for Scotland on Sunday sportswriter

A BOOK by Scotland on Sunday sportswriter, Tom English, has been chosen the Best Rugby Book of the Year at an UK-wide sports book awards ceremony.

The Grudge now goes on to compete for the overall prize in the British Sports Book Awards, organised by the National Sporting Club.

The book explores the 1990 Grand Slam showdown between England and Scotland at Murrayfield. It was one of three award wins for publishers, Yellow Jersey Press.

The overall title is chosen via online voting between now and the 12th of next month. This is the ninth annual British Sports Books Awards.

Meanwhile, ‘In Search of Alan Gilzean’, by James Morgan, deputy sports editor at The Herald newspaper, was in the running for Football Book of the Year, which was won by Promised Land, by Anthony Clavane. Morgan’s book is published by BackPage Press, which is run by former Herald sportswriter, Martin Greig, along with Neil White, formerly a sportswriter at the Sunday Times Scotland, and James Porteous, Morgan’s predecessor at The Herald.

The full list of winners is:

Best Autobiography – Beware of the Dog – Brian Moore (Simon & Schuster)

Best Biography – Trautmann’s Journey – Catrine Clay (Yellow Jersey Press)

Best Sports Book Retailer – WHSmith

Best Football Book – Promised Land – Anthony Clavane (Yellow Jersey Press)

Best Cricket Book – Slipless in Settle – Harry Pearson (Little, Brown)

Best Rugby Book – The Grudge – Tom English (Yellow Jersey Press)

Best Racing Book – The Story of Your Life – James Lambie (Matador)

Best Illustrated Title – ’61 The Spurs Double – Doug Cheeseman, Martin Cloake and Adam Powley (Tottenham Hotspur FC /Vision Sports Publishing)

Best Publicity Campaign – It’s All About the Bike – Robert Penn (Particular Books) – Campaign by Mari Yamazaki

Best New Writer – Bounce – Matthew Syed (Fourth Estate)