2025 Shortlist Interview: Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson

Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson’s Ultra Women has been shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2025.

What is your book about?

Lily Canter: “This book charts the history of female endurance right back from the hunter-gatherers to the modern day. And we look at everything from the physiology, the psychology, the social constraints and the culture within which women and ultra endurance exists.”

Emma Wilkinson: “This is a book about the hidden stories of female endurance athletes, women who are breaking records, doing firsts and winning races outright. We track it back through history and we talk about everything that helps women excel in endurance sports.”

How does it feel to be shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award?

Lily: “We’re so pleased to be on the shortlist. These are definitely untold stories and we’re really delighted to be representing women in a field of what often feels like a sea of books about men and sport.”

Emma: “We’re absolutely delighted. It was a bit of a feat of endurance to even get this book to the bookshops and find a publisher who was willing to take this on, it was a real labour of love for us. We’re so excited that the stories of these amazing female endurance athletes are being acknowledged.”

What would it mean to win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award?

Lily: “It would be amazing to win this award. More than it being about us feeling really proud of what we’ve done, which obviously we are, what would be particularly important to us is getting those untold stories out there to an even wider audience and showing that the tide is turning and women’s sport is becoming more important in society.

“Women are being given more opportunities and we just need to keep knocking down those doors and pushing those boundaries like the women we speak about in the book. For us, winning this award would really embody that sense of women deserving a place in sport, and women belonging in sport and we need to keep pushing that message.”

Emma: “It would mean so much, we would be absolutely over the moon, partly because it would be vindication, because we were told that people wouldn’t care about these stories. The reaction that we’ve had from our readers just tells us that that is not the case at all, the opposite is true.

“Going into any bookshop, including ones that have our book on the shelves, you just see rows and rows of books written by men about men in sports and we just want to do something to redress that balance a little bit and share how amazing women are when it comes to endurance.”

About the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the longest established and most valuable literary sports-writing prize in the world. First awarded in 1989, it aims to reward excellence in sports writing and provide recognition to authors who bring the world of sport to life through their work.

This year’s winner will be crowned at a central London ceremony on Tuesday, 25th November, where they will also claim a £30,000 prize and the coveted William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award trophy. Shortlisted authors will receive a leather-bound copy of their book along with £3,000 each.

The 2025 judging panel will be chaired by Alyson Rudd, with Clarke Carlisle, Elis James, Gabby Logan, Mark Lawson, Dame Heather Rabbatts and Michelle Walder making up the rest of the panel.