A Clear Blue Sky By Jonny Bairstow with Duncan Hamilton Release date: 01st November, 2017 Publisher: Harper Collins List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £14.44 You Save: £5.55 (27%) Buy Now

In among the mountain of ‘official’ football annuals, hastily-written cut-and-paste sporting biographies, statistical appreciations and photographic collections piled high in readiness for the traditional Christmas book-buying spree lies a gem of a sporting tome. It has nothing to do with football, though its subject could probably have become a professional footballer; indeed, it could be argued that sport itself is peripheral to the book’s narrative because this is a tale which champions determination, willpower and human spirit. It’s difficult to comprehend how a boy of eight feels when his father, an accomplished international sportsman, takes his own life. David Bairstow was a well-liked, larger-than-life character and uncompromising, teak-tough cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. He experienced incredible highs as a sportsman, yet something caused him to commit suicide aged just 46 and leave behind a wife, recently diagnosed with cancer, and three young children. How Jonny Bairstow coped is pivotal to an often heart-rending tale, beautifully written by Duncan Hamilton. As a youngster, Jonny was an outstanding athlete but ultimately, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a professional cricketer. A Clear Blue Sky is not, however, a statistical re-run of JB’s career to date, but a gripping, page-turning evocation of the human spirit, a story of triumph and lots of sadness in the face of extreme adversity. By all means keep the bookshops’ tills ringing by buying those official annuals and statistical collections, but if you’re looking to read one of the very best sport-related books of recent years, then treat yourself to a copy of A Clear Blue Sky.