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Beryl - WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023: In Search of Britain's Greatest Athlete, Beryl Burton

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Wilson concludes that, 'Technology has progressed beyond the records that Beryl Burton set. Other athletes...have not.' Many people will have suspected as much, and here is the proof. One of her main achievements was setting a women’s record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men’s record for two years. Beryl still holds the women’s record which was set in 1967 (over 40 years ago).

In my previous review I also mentioned that it's always hard to compare performances across different eras; however, in a prime example of what makes this book so different to a more conventional biography, Wilson has actually done exactly that. For the longest time, she had a fierce desire for men’s love and could never have the reassurance that she could get it. In fact, she had said that jealously is a hallmark of love.

Well. The books that beat Bainbridge to the Booker Prize - including J.G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur and A.S. Byatt’s Possession - stand tall many years later, but it’s true that she was the most shortlisted author never to win, with five appearances on the Booker Prize shortlist. Even a special posthumous ‘ Best of Beryl’ prize couldn’t assuage that. The Italian-owned factory, for the most part, employs Italian workers but Brenda and Freda the lead protagonists who have an uneasy friendship are English. Entry to the 35th William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is now open. For more information about the Award and to enter, please visit: https://news.williamhill.com/sport/sports-book-of-the-year/ After all, who else would dare, as Bainbridge does in The Dressmaker, to give a character two different names - Margo is also referred to as Marge - without ever explaining it? (My take on it is that Margo – with its air of fading glamour - is how she sees herself, while the plainer Marge is how Nellie and others view her.) This is an example of the gaps Bainbridge leaves for the reader to fill in. ‘Well, I don’t like to be obvious or spell things out,’ she told the Paris Review. This is an inspirational story that just had to be told. There are few athletes, male or female, that had the success and longevity of Beryl Burton - but for too long her name and achievements have remained in the shadows. No longer! This fabulous book brings the person and her phenomenal, groundbreaking achievements to light - I couldn't put it down.' - Chrissie Wellington, four times world Ironman champion

A panel of judges from the world of sports and journalism, chaired by author and journalist, Alyson Rudd, concluded a four-month judging process, whittling a record 158 entries down to the winning book. From the 50s to the 80s, Beryl dominated women’s cycling racing in the UK, winning over 90 domestic championships and seven world titles, setting numerous national records. George Hardy is the man from whom the novel takes its title from. He is a photographer and surgeon and a very complex character that is attracted to both men and women. There certainly is. Obviously both books have to cover some of the same ground, but each does it in his own style, and focuses on different things. The Award, which first took place in 1989 and is now the longest-established competition in the industry, is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing, providing authors and publishers with a platform to showcase and promote their books.Master Georgie, shortlisted in 1998, was perhaps the most striking of Bainbridge’s near-misses. In what the chair of the judges, Douglas Hurd, called ‘a quiet year’, Master Georgie finished behind Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam, a novel that few, 25 years on, would consider to be among his best work. And the last novel published in Bainbridge’s lifetime, According to Queeney (2001), was longlisted but not shortlisted. One of the judges, Philip Hensher, quite reasonably argued that ‘the media excitement over Beryl Bainbridge actually damaged her chances […] We realised that if we shortlisted her, she had to win. There was no point in blotting out the winner’s publicity with a storm of “Beryl Bridesmaid Again” headlines.’

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