There have been some incredible, incredible sportswriters over the years – those talented enough with the pen to warrant inclusion in literary circles and stand toe to toe with Pulitzer Prize winners and the like.

Norman Mailer’s The Fight, Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes, George Plimpton’s Paper Lion, Gay Talese’s The Silent Season of a Hero and David Peace’s The Damned United rank as special works high on originality, style and subject matter.

If we can discover just one voice in the journalistic undergrowth – a voice perhaps rejected by regional puppet-masters or half-blind publishers – then such an outcome will bring us much cheer.