Duncan Hamilton (born December 1958) is a British author and

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and three-time winner of the

William Hill Sports Book of the Year The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports literary award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. The award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing. It was first awarded in 1989, and was devised by Graham ...

award.

Life and career

Hamilton was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and his family moved to Nottinghamshire when he was four. Hamilton was the ''

Nottingham Evening Post The ''Nottingham Post'' (formerly the ''Nottingham Evening Post'') is an English tabloid newspaper which serves Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. The ''Post'' is published Monday to Saturday ...

''s

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

reporter during the club's glory years and covered both of Forest's victorious European Cup campaigns (1979 and 1980) for the newspaper. During his time covering Forest, Hamilton developed a close, if at times testy, relationship with the club's outspoken manager,

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engl ...

. He won his first William Hill award with the 2007 memoir ''Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years With Brian Clough'', an account of his time at the ''Nottingham Evening Post'' where he worked for more than 20 years. The book also won the Best Football Book category of the 2008 British Sports Book Awards. In ''Provided You Don't Kiss Me'', Hamilton claims he bonded with Clough after the manager learned he, like Clough, was from the north-east of England. He provides an eyewitness account of the relationship between Clough and his assistant,

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

, and charts Clough's demise and descent into alcoholism. ''

FHM ''FHM'' (For Him Magazine) is a British multinational men's lifestyle magazine that was published in several countries. Its master edition contained features such as the ''FHM'' 100 Sexiest Women in the World, which has featured models, actres ...

'' called the book a "superb portrait of the conflicted, contradictory man

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

doesn't duck his uglier aspects." It quickly became a bestseller and won the William Hill award against strong competition. After winning the £18,000 first prize, Hamilton wrote a column for the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'', where he was a deputy editor, expressing his surprise and delight at the book's success. In 2009, Hamilton won a second William Hill award for ''Harold Larwood'', a biography of the fast bowler

Harold Larwood Harold Larwood, MBE (14 November 1904 – 22 July 1995) was a professional cricketer for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team between 1924 and 1938. A right-arm fast bowler who combined unusual speed with grea ...

, who was a protagonist in the controversial "Bodyline" series between Australia and England in 1932-33. The book also won the Best Biography category of the 2010 British Sports Book Awards and was named the ''Wisden'' Book of the Year. In 2019 he won his third William Hill award for ''The Great Romantic: Cricket and the Golden Age of

Neville Cardus Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (2 April 188828 February 1975) was an English writer and critic. From an impoverished home background, and mainly self-educated, he became ''The Manchester Gua ...

''. After 32 years as a newspaper journalist in Nottingham and Leeds, Hamilton now works as a freelance, mostly concentrating on writing his books. He and his wife Mandy live in the village of

Menston Menston is a village and civil parish in the City of Bradford in the county of West Yorkshire, England. Along with Burley in Wharfedale, most of Menston is within Wharfedale Ward in the metropolitan borough of Bradford. The remainder of M ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

Books

*''Nottingham Forest FC: Thirty Great Years in Photographs'', 1988 *''Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough'', 2007 *''Sweet Summers: The Classic Cricket Writing of JM Kilburn'', 2008 (edited) *''Fire and Ashes'', 2009 *''Harold Larwood'', 2009 *''Old Big 'ead: The Wit and Wisdom of Brian Clough'', 2009 (edited) *''A Last English Summer'', 2010 *''The Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel Thief'', 2011 *''Wisden on Yorkshire: An Anthology'', 2011 (edited) *''The Footballer Who Could Fly: Living in My Father's Black and White World'', 2012 *''Immortal: The Biography of George Best'', 2013 *''For the Glory: The Life of Eric Liddell'', 2016 *''A Clear Blue Sky'', 2017 (with

Jonny Bairstow Jonathan Marc Bairstow (born 26 September 1989) is an English cricketer who plays internationally for England in all formats. In domestic cricket, he represents Yorkshire, and has played in multiple Twenty20 leagues, including for Sunrisers Hy ...

) *''The Kings of Summer: How Cricket's 2016 County Championship Came down to the Very Last Match of the Season'', 2017 *''Going to the Match: The Passion for Football'', 2019 *''The Great Romantic: Cricket and the Golden Age of Neville Cardus'', 2019 *''One Long and Beautiful Summer: A Short Elegy for Red-Ball Cricket'', 2020

References

External links

The author of the Sports Book of the Year talks about Brian Clough, working on the Post, and Jimmy Sirrel's toiletry requirements

Interview with Duncan Hamilton (14 December 2010)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Duncan 1958 births Living people Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne British male journalists Cricket historians and writers English journalists English sportswriters English biographers Male biographers