Shortlist announced for world's most valuable sportsbook prize :

Andrew Greig Preferred Lies: A Journey to the Heart of Scottish Golf (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)	Paul Rambali Barefoot Runner :  The Life of Marathon Champion Abebe Bikila (Serpent's Tail)

Matt Rendell The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)	Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures (Bantam)

Guy Walters Berlin Games: How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream (John Murray)	Geoffrey Ward Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (Pimlico)

The announcement of the winner of this year's eighteenth William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award (run in association with Waterstone's) - will be made at Waterstone's in Piccadilly at a lunchtime ceremony on Monday, November 27.

'This is a vintage year featuring a wide range of superb books covering diverse sporting characters and subjects. The winner will have beaten off perhaps the strongest short-list ever assembled' said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe.

The Judging Panel for the Award consists of: twice Sports Journalist of the Year, Paul Hayward; well known broadcaster and writer John Inverdale; broadcaster and writer Danny Kelly; the only sports journalist to win the overall Journalist of the Year award, Hugh McIlvanney; writer, columnist and author, Alyson Rudd.

Chairman of the Judging Panel and co-founder of the Award is the founder of the Sportspages bookshop, John Gaustad.

The winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year will receive £18,000 cash plus a £2000 William Hill free bet; plus a specially commissioned, unique bound copy of his book by master bookbinder David Sellars. The runners-up will each receive £2000 cash, a £1000 William Hill free bet and a leather-bound copy of the book.

Further information.......
Graham Sharpe......0208 918 3731....0780 3233702.