Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an art, performance, and music junkie. I love spectacle. My writing career began with articles in the political underground press of the 1970s and I've always seen art and entertainment as ‘political’ in their messages and in the emotions they incite. Tennis for me is part of a cultural spectrum embracing fashion, city and recreational life, film and artistic counter cultures, all creating a world of excitement and passion, so my writing on tennis is part of a wider project: to try to answer the questions of why these performances are so much more than ‘just’ entertainment, why they give passion and meaning to life, and why they are inspirational.


I wrote

Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

By Elizabeth Wilson,

Book cover of Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

What is my book about?

My love letter to tennis, this book brings alive (I hope) the romance and eroticism of tennis, but it is…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played

Elizabeth Wilson Why did I love this book?

Fisher tells a bigger story of world events and heroism through the lens of one historic tennis match: the Davis Cup final between the US and Germany played at Wimbledon in 1936 with the Swastika fluttering over the sacred green lawns. I love this inspirational and dramatic book and its hero, the German tennis star, Baron Gottfried von Cramm, the most beautiful man in Europe, an aristocrat whose tennis was exquisite. But he was more than simply a player. He lost the match. Had he won, the Nazis could not have touched him, the sporting hero, but he openly criticized the regime. He was also gay and this was the excuse for his imprisonment. Yet he survived and played a role in the failed attempt on Hitler’s life in 1944. His courage is inspiring. 

By Marshall Jon Fisher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Terrible Splendor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Before Federer versus Nadal, before Borg versus McEnroe, the greatest tennis match ever played pitted the dominant Don Budge against the seductively handsome Baron Gottfried von Cramm. This deciding 1937 Davis Cup match, played on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, was a battle of titans: the world's number one tennis player against the number two; America against Germany; democracy against fascism. For five superhuman sets, the duo’s brilliant shotmaking kept the Centre Court crowd–and the world–spellbound.

But the match’s significance extended well beyond the immaculate grass courts of Wimbledon. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the brink of…


Book cover of Court on Canvas: Tennis in Art

Elizabeth Wilson Why did I love this book?

This beautiful book is the catalogue of an art exhibition devoted to paintings and photographs that capture the world of tennis, demonstrating the close link between art and the sport. Indeed, many enthusiasts see tennis as an art in its own right and this book should convince any waverers. The gorgeous coloured and black and white illustrations range from late Victorian genre scenes of tennis as a social event including champagne, strawberries, and flirtation, on through the androgynous twenties and thirties and its development into the modern power game. Accompanying essays trace the game’s wider cultural influence. Here you will find above all the languor and elegance of social tennis and especially the centrality of women to it, from ladies playing in bustles and high heels to the Williams sisters in skin-tight miniskirts.

By Ann Sumner (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Court on Canvas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Court on Canvas: Tennis in Art" celebrates the origins of the game in Birmingham and explores the ways in which tennis has inspired artists from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The book guides us from the origins of the game as a genteel pastime for the upper classes, through its codification as a sport, to the international high-earning power game of today. It illustrates the changes in fashion associated with the sport and the important role tennis played in the emancipation of women in the early part of the twentieth century. The book contains a survey of images of tennis in…


Book cover of Open: An Autobiography

Elizabeth Wilson Why did I love this book?

The only tennis biography to be a best-seller, this frank and often racy tale of Agassi’s troubled childhood and roller coaster career is far more honest and open (aka the title) than the usual sports hagiographies. He tells all about his over-ambitious father, who made him train in a rattle snake-infested desert; about his miserable years in a tennis boot camp; about his youthful fame and the sudden responsibility of having lots of money he didn’t know how to handle; of the time his false hairpiece fell off during a match;  his doomed marriage to film star Brooke Shields; and his happy life with Steffie Graff. He even admits to dabbling in recreational drugs. There may be a few too many detailed accounts of famous matches, but this book lays it on the line about the pain and the perils as well as the intoxication of life at the top of the game.

By Andre Agassi,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Open as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court - but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game.

Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts.

Agassi makes us feel his…


Book cover of Lolita

Elizabeth Wilson Why did I love this book?

Once hailed as a masterpiece, today Nabokov’s novel is condemned for its subject matter, paedophilia. Some now feel it should never have been written, but I include it for two reasons. Firstly, the narrator knows his behaviour is evil and he doesn’t shrink from describing how his obsession has ruined his own life as well as Lolita’s. It is an exposure of poisoned obsession, not an endorsement, certainly not a defence of perversion and in any case, censorship of one literary fictional work wouldn’t deter paedophiles. Secondly, it is disturbing to read because it is so well written. It includes a perfect description of Lolita playing tennis and in that moment condenses all the evil and hopelessness of voyeurism. We live in a voyeuristic culture and Lolita does ask difficult questions about that.

By Vladimir Nabokov,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked Lolita as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.'

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, frustrated college professor. In love with his landlady's twelve-year-old daughter Lolita, he'll do anything to possess her. Unable and unwilling to stop himself, he is prepared to commit any crime to get what he wants.

Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all…


Book cover of Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession

Elizabeth Wilson Why did I love this book?

Finally, this is one for the fans, who are so important in sport. The blurb tells us, "For much of the past decade, William Skidelsky has not been able to stop thinking about Roger Federer, the greatest and most graceful player of all time. It’s a devotion that has been all-consuming." An obsession it certainly is and Skidellsky looks at it from all angles: his own emotional problems, the way the game of tennis has developed (not always for the better), and what Federer signifies as a sports and cultural icon. Why fans cared so passionately about Federer and more than about any other player tells us much about our culture of spectacle and consumption and our longing in a secular and cynical world for heroes to capture our imagination and to inspire.

By William Skidelsky,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Federer and Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For much of the past decade, William Skidelsky has not been able to stop thinking about Roger Federer, the greatest and most graceful tennis player of all time. It's a devotion that has been all-consuming.

In Federer and Me, Skidelsky asks what it is about the Swiss star that transfixes him, and countless others. He dissects the wonders of his forehand, reflects on his rivalry with Nadal, revels in his victories and relives his most crushing defeats.

But this is more than just a book about Federer. In charting his obsession, Skidelsky explores the evolution of modern tennis, the role…


Explore my book 😀

Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

By Elizabeth Wilson,

Book cover of Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

What is my book about?

My love letter to tennis, this book brings alive (I hope) the romance and eroticism of tennis, but it is also a serious history of this elaborate game with its mysterious scoring system. It began in medieval court life and by the Renaissance was played by royalty, Henry VIII among others, and aristocrats and was considered an essential part of a gentleman’s education. The Victorians revived it as a romantic garden party event on suburban lawns and today it has adapted again to become a gladiatorial world sport. Yet it has not lost its glamour or its drama. Love Game dramatizes the great matches, the triumphs and agonizing defeats, the heroes and heroines of the game, and with them, the reasons for its unique appeal.

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Cytress Vee: A Dog Squad Story

By Kalvin Thane,

Book cover of Cytress Vee: A Dog Squad Story

Kalvin Thane Author Of Cytress Vee: A Dog Squad Story

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

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Kalvin's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Unlike the typical tales of a flawless fighting unit, this story follows Commander Kami Trenn and her ragtag squad of mixed-race space marines.

Dog Squad fights a mysterious adversary whose presence remains shrouded in secrecy. The fate of the universe hangs in the balance, but will they be able to make enough of a difference?

Can they hope to uncover the enemy’s plans for galactic dominance before the Alliance falls? Maybe. If they can stop fighting each other.

Cytress Vee: A Dog Squad Story

By Kalvin Thane,

What is this book about?

Across the void formed by two galactic spiral arms, vast forces face each other.

The tenuous Alliance, sixty civilizations united only by fear of invasion, prepare to resist the encroachment of their as-yet unseen enemy, known only as the Creeps.

The Void has become a battleground. Three thousand light years across, and populated by a scattering of ten thousand ‘dark’ worlds, it is the Alliance’s last chance to protect their way of life. Self-destructive, robotic drones pour across the Void in ever-increasing numbers, testing the Alliance fleets to breaking point.

In the midst of the surging tides of war, a…


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Interested in tennis, gay men, and a middle age man?

Tennis 32 books
Gay Men 132 books
A Middle Age Man 14 books