Hill and Barton up for Sports Autobiography of the Year

Memoirs by former Fomula One champion Damon Hill and "controversial" footballer Joey Barton are in the running for the 2017 Cross Autobiography of the Year Award.

They compete for the award alongside titles from England cricketer Jonathan Trott, long distance Olympic runner Jo Pavey, football "legend" Ian Wright, and Olympic long jump gold medallist Greg Rutherford.

Barton has been shortlisted for his No Nonsense memoir, published by Simon & Schuster, while Hill is in the running for Watching the Wheels , published by Macmillan. Pavey's title is This Mum Runs (Yellow Jersey, PRH), Rutherford's is Unexpected  (Simon & Schuster), Trott is honoured for Unguarded (Sphere, Little Brown) while Wright has made the list for his memoir A Life in Football (Constable, Little Brown).

This year's panel of judges consist of former England rugby star Brian Moore, Olympic rowing gold medallist Dame Katherine Grainger, National Hunt champion jockey trainer Paul Nicholls, Sky Sports La Liga pundit Guillem Balague, sports editor of the Mail on Sunday Alison Kervin and Middlesex and England cricketer Nick Compton.   

David Willis, chairman of the Sports Book Awards, said: "Once again we have a great group of nominees in what is always a hugely competitive category. We look forward to seeing who our 2017 winner is at Lord's in May as we celebrate 15 years of the Cross Sports Book Awards."

Sponsored by A.T. Cross, the Autobiography of the Year Award celebrates and promotes the best memoirs from the previous12 months.

The 15th Cross Sports Book Awards will take place at Lord's Cricket Ground on the evening of May 24th and will be hosted by Sky Sports News host Mike Wedderburn and Test Match Special's Alison Mitchell.