WIlliam Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2012 longlist announced

Victoria Pendleton's autobiography, co-authored with Donald McRae, is up against two-times-William-Hill winner Duncan Hamilton

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the world's biggest literary prize for sports writing. The winner gets £24,000, a £2,000 bet, a specially-commissioned hardbound copy of their book an a day at the races.

'2012 was a memorable sporting year thanks to the Olympics and the Paralympics, the Ryder Cup and the US Open to name but a few of the highlights, and it is a year which has also produced a strong crop of memorable sporting books. It has been difficult enough to narrow the contenders down to a manageable longlist of fourteen titles, and with sports like squash, swimming and Ironman racing represented for the first time, this is the most diverse longlist we have yet seen,' said William Hill spokesman and founder of the Award, Graham Sharpe.

Which book would you place odds on from this longlist?

• That Near-Death Thing – Inside the TT : The World’s Most Dangerous Race, Rick Broadbent (Orion)
• Running with the Kenyans – Discovering The Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth, Adharanand Finn (Faber)
• Iron War – Dave Scott, Mark Allen & the Greatest Race Ever Run, Matt Fitzgerald (Quercus Press)
• The Footballer Who Could Fly, Duncan Hamilton (Century)
• The Secret Race – Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs, Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle (Bantam Press)
• A Weight Off My Mind – My Autobiography, Richard Hughes, with Lee Mottershead (Racing Post)
• Be Careful What You Wish For, Simon Jordan (Yellow Jersey)
• Fibber in the Heat, Miles Jupp (Ebury Press)
• The Dirtiest Race in History – Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the 1988 Olympic 100m Final, Richard Moore (Wisden Sports Writing)
• Between the Lines – The Autobiography by Victoria Pendleton, with Donald McRae (HarperSport)
• Swimming Studies, Leanne Shapton (Particular Books)
• A Life Without Limits – A World Champion’s Journey, Chrissie Wellington, with Michael Aylwin (Constable & Robinson)
• Jonny: My Autobiography, Jonny Wilkinson, with Owen Slot (Headline)
• Shot and a Ghost: A Year in the Brutal World of Professional Squash, James Willstrop (Rod Gilmour)

The shortlist will be announced on 26 October, and the winner on 26 November.