was the first published novel by David Storey and established him as a significant presence in postwar British fiction. It drew on his own experience of playing professional Rugby League football for his native city of Wakefield in Yorkshire. As Storey recalls in his posthumously published memoir,
A Stinging Delight(2021), the title of the novel came from the lyric of a blues song he heard on the radio one evening, and noted down, while he was working on the manuscript: “this sportin’ life: you know, it’s gonna be the death o’ me. I think I might settle down” (
Stinging,248; this differs from the versions of the lyrics now available online, but the gist is the same). The song in question (although Storey does not supply this information) is “Sportin’ Life…
3738 words
Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "This Sporting Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 November 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8295, accessed 27 November 2024.]
