Book review Newspaper columnists are born and not made; Ian Wooldridge, of the Daily M,qail, is an aristocrat among Sports writers. So it must have seemed a gilt-edged idea to Everest Books when a Daily M,ail reader suggested that a col- lection of hlis articles should be presented betwveen hard covers. Thus The Best of Wooldridge (Everest Books, ?6M5O) was con- ceived. The task of selecting the pieces uas allotted to Wooldridge himself. " They do not appear chronologicallY and only in a few instances are they linked together by subject", he says in an intro- duction. " The onlv motive was to suggest that, contrary to East German methodism, sport is still about people and places and losers anC friendships and style." Wooldridge-watchers will not be disappointed by his style. The epithets stream from his pungent pen like summer sunshine; he is unquesrionably a bright light in the firmament of sports writers. In this slim book there is a range of topics to satisfy most palates, whether your taste is snooker or bull fighting, Idi Amin or the Duke of Alburquerque. Topically, he sheds light on the World Cup (Zaire 0, Yugoslavia 9), the Isle of Man TT races, Test cricket and tennis (Connors: ". . . with the face and hairstyle of a medieval varlet, he personifies a generation which tips its hat to no man"). For reader and reporter; Wool- dridge is a joy and an educatibn He sets the standard and is often making the pace. Having said all that, I think there are defects in the presenta- tion of the book. I feel that a newspaper column cannot be readily divorced from the news pages which it should amplify and adorn. I imagine that even devotees of Bernard Levin might blanche at a conglomeration of his columns without adequate relation to the events which inspired them. Everest Books might have served their readers and Wooldridge better if they had set the scene for some of the articles. Many have an introduction by WVoold- ridge but his personal reflections do not always give the right per- spective. Given that the articles do not appear in sequence, I would have wvelcomed a date and, occasionally, a cutting, a picture or a headline to remind me exactly what hap- pened as well as how it happened. As the book costs ?6.50 for 192 pages, I am sure that this would not have broken the publishers budget; it would certainly have enhanced this book, and Woold- ridge's writing deserves special treatment Let the last word come from the author in his introduc- tion: " Far from being a collected works this is a confusion of newspaper columns. . .". Nicholas Keith Book review Wooldridge in style, but out of context