Answered Prayers

Terrific. As good on post-war Britain as Peter Hennessy. Informed and heart-breaking. – Stephen FrearsAn expert observer of different forms of Englishness, he treats sportspeople as three-dimensional humans. * Financial Times *Absorbing. Like all the best football books, Answered Prayers is not just about football; it’s about hope and despair, friendship and enmity, and the character it takes to handle them. * Guardian (Book of the Week) *Magnificent, moving, often funny and deeply researched account … Is this just a book for those who know football? Far from it: this is a story of glory and the impermanence of fame. * Sunday Times (Book of the Week) *Like Alf Ramsey’s 1966 team, this book has depth, it has riches and it’s a winner - the finest piece of sports writing I have read in ages and a superb piece of contemporary history. Duncan Hamilton’s great gift is the blending of character, mood and moment. Even Ramsey might have showed a spasm of emotion were he here to read it. – Peter HennessyThis may well be one of the best books ever written about football. * Choice Magazine *Brilliant…Hamilton, arguably Britain’s greatest sportswriter, tells [Ramsey’s] tale with his wonderful panache. He is the master of the vivid phrase… Dry humour is never far from the surface in this book’s pages. * Daily Express *Hamilton has a gift for treating sportspeople as humans * Financial Times (Book of the Year) *A highly poignant, history of England’s World Cup victory in 1966. * Daily Express (Book of the Year) *The finest sports book of the year by one of the country’s most garlanded sports writers. * Daily Mail *Who would have thought a new book about a sporting event of the distant past would be as enlightening and relevant as Hamilton’s Answered Prayers. * Sports Journalists’ Association *

Duncan Hamilton has won three William Hill Sports Book of the Year Prizes. He has been nominated on a further four occasions. He has also claimed two British Sports Book Awards and is the first writer to have won the Wisden Cricket Book of the Year on three occasions. His biography of the Chariots of Fire runner Eric Liddell, For the Glory, was a New York Times bestseller. He most recently collaborated with Jonny Bairstow on the cricketer’s autobiography, A Clear Blue Sky.