Elton John scores, Ronnie O’Sullivan delivers on cue, and ‘Bazball’ takes off in the year’s finest sportswriting
Watford Forever
John Preston and Elton John, Viking
The year is 1977. Elton John is one of the most flamboyant and wealthy pop stars in the world. Graham Taylor is a disciplinarian football manager who would, later in life, be immortalised by the Sun as a turnip. They are perhaps the least likely sporting duo of all time. Yet, under their stewardship, Watford Football Club climbed from the bottom of the fourth division to become the second-best club in the country. John Preston – author of The Dig, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell and A Very English Scandal – weaves a warm account of a beautiful friendship. Candid contributions from Elton himself reveal that Taylor didn’t just turn around a team, but a lonely and dangerously addicted musician too. Expect a big screen treatment soon.