Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson makes his selection of the sports books for great gifts this Christmas Unforgivable.

BLACKNESS: THE RISE AND FALL OF JACK JOHNSON by Geoffrey Ward (Pimilco, £8.99)

A BIOGRAPHY of boxing's first black heavyweight champion would be a remarkable tome whatever the circumstances, but the depth of research that has gone into Geoffrey Ward's loving depiction of Jack Johnson makes this a worthy candidate for sports book of the year.

From the moment he emerged as a heavyweight contender in 1903, Johnson shocked and enthralled America in equal measure.

Whites were fearful of his uncompromising brutality in the ring and his refusal to adhere to the political norms of the time outside it. Blacks resented his impetuous behaviour and his three failed marriages to white women. And all the time, Johnson continued to live out one of the most flamboyant and divisive careers that sport has ever seen.

BERLIN GAMES: How Hitler Stole The Olympic Dream by Guy Walters (John Murray, £20)

IN a year that saw a modern Germany revel in the benign nationalism that accompanied football's World Cup, it was chastening to be reminded of a time when sport in the Fatherland was a far more frightening affair. The 1936 Olympic Games might be best known for the feats of Jesse Owens, but they were also a horrible precursor to everything that was to follow in the Second World War. With hostilities bubbling below the surface, Hitler used the Games to project his vision of German dominance onto a watching world. Using the Olympics as his starting point, Guy Walters quickly branches out into a wider examination of how a complex political situation rapidly got out of hand.

THE DEATH OF MARCO PANTANI by Matt Rendell (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £16.99)

ANOTHER book that could hardly have been timed any better, Matt Rendell's biography of disgraced Italian cyclist Marco Pantani came in a year when Floyd Landis's failed drugs test blighted the sport's most famous race, the Tour de France. Pantani was found dead in his native Italy in February 2004, shortly before it emerged that he had been addicted to cocaine since autumn 1999, when he had been expelled from the Tour of Italy for blood doping. Matt Rendell's intimate biography does not treat Pantani's rise and fall in isolation. Instead, the Italian is treated as merely the most high-profile victim of a doping culture that has become endemic within the cycling world.

MATCH OF MY LIFE by Assorted Sunderland Stars (Know The Score Books, £16.99)

THE premise was simple - 12 Sunderland legends talk about the biggest game of their career - but the end result proved captivating. From Gary Rowell's reminiscences about his hat-trick against Newcastle to Jimmy Montgomery's, pictured, thoughts about the 1973 FA Cup final, it is hard to imagine any Sunderland fan putting this down if it's in their stocking on Christmas Day. While a collection of 12 match reports might not seem the most exciting read, the strength of Rob Mason's book is in the attention to detail.

Often, what happened on the pitch is deemed no more important than what happened on the train to the game or in the dressing room beforehand.

Available from the stadium retail store, from Debenhams in Sunderland and on the club's official website safc. com

THE HITMAN: My Story by Ricky Hatton (Ebury Press, £17.99)

WHEN it comes to a rags to riches, it doesn't get much more remarkable than Ricky Hatton's ascent to the role of the best pound for pound fighter on the planet. A hard-grafting ex-carpet fitter, Hatton still lives on the streets where he grew up, drinking Guinness in his local and playing darts with his family and friends.

Every so often, though, he switches into fight mode, transforming his entire existence to put on a show in front of 20,000 frenzied fans. Told with his trademark wit, Hatton's story is a tale of childhood dreams come true. It is also proof that millionaire sportsmen need not be removed from the society that spawned them.

THE MEANING OF SPORT by Simon Barnes (Short Books, £16.99)

AS chief sports writer of The Times, Simon Barnes is able to take us on a whistle-stop tour of the some of the biggest sporting events in the world. But, rather than simply reporting on what happened at the Olympics, the Ashes or the Champions League final, Barnes delves deeper to explore why we, as a nation, are so enthralled by the world of sport. Why does sport exert an iron grip on the human imagination? Why is sport so profoundly important when it is little more than 22 men chasing a ball? And why does it continue to set cultural and social agendas throughout the world?