The Grudge

Shortlised for the 2022 SBA Best Sports Book of the 21st Century prize

The gripping inside story of when an England-Scotland rugby match become more than a game

Murrayfield, the Calcutta Cup, March 1990. England vs. Scotland - winner-takes-all for the Five Nations Grand Slam, the biggest prize in northern hemisphere rugby.

Will Carling's England are the very embodiment of Margaret Thatcher's Britain - snarling, brutish and all-conquering. Scotland are the underdogs - second-class citizens from a land that's become the testing ground for the most unpopular tax in living memory: Thatcher's Poll Tax. In Edinburgh, nationalism is rising high - what happens in the stadium will resound far beyond the pitch.

Told with unprecedented access to key players, coaches and supporters on both sides (Will Carling, Ian McGeechan, Brian Moore and the rest), Tom English has produced a gripping account of a titanic struggle that thrusts the reader right into the heart of the action. Game on.

'A priceless read' Guardian
'Absolutely outstanding' The Times
'An epic tale' Daily Telegraph
'Gripping' Scottish Review of Books