> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thebeemagazine.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Working Class Library Episode 7: This Sporting Life by David Storey - URL: https://thebeemagazine.com/the-working-class-library-episode-7-this-sporting-life-by-david-storey/ - Published: 2026-05-07T16:53:04.000Z - Updated: 2026-06-15T18:58:44.000Z - Description: David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, This Sporting Life. - Author: Richard Benson - Tags: Podcast In this episode of the Working Class Library, David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, [This Sporting Life](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781784873974?ref=thebeemagazine.com). This Sporting Life, said The Guardian, “provided one of the great energising shocks of the 1960s, a blast of energy smashing at the dullness, complacency and hypocrisy of class-ridden Britain.” Written by Storey when he was still a professional rugby league player, it is a story of frustrated sexual relationships, money, power and celebrity, set in the dark, smoky world of rugby league in the industrial North. In 1963, Lindsay Anderson turned it into a film starring Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts, who were nominated for Oscars. Storey wrote the screenplay. Book and film are now recognised as classics. David Peace grew up a few miles from where Storey had lived in Wakefield and, of course, has written extensively about sport and class in the industrial North, most recently with his novel Munichs. He joins Claire and Richard in the studio to consider This Sporting Life’s enduring appeal and what it means to him as a novelist. David also talks about how encouraging it was to know that writers such as Storey, John Braine, Stan Barstow and Keith Waterhouse had come from working-class communities local to his parental home. If you have any thoughts or comments on the episode, please share them with us on our social media channels. ### **Books and Authors Mentioned** Stan Barstow – [A Kind of Loving](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781914595462?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Ask Me Tomorrow](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780573015137?ref=thebeemagazine.com) John Braine – [Room at the Top](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780099445364?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Arthur Conan Doyle – [The Complete Sherlock Holmes](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780785848790?ref=thebeemagazine.com) D. H. Lawrence – [The Rainbow](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9798880919628?ref=thebeemagazine.com) John Osborne – [The Entertainer](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571335145?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Look Back in Anger](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780573112553?ref=thebeemagazine.com) David Peace – [The Red Riding Quartet](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781781259894?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [GB84](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571314874?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Tokyo Year Zero](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571231997?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [The Damned United](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781350005136?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Red or Dead](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781839044571?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Munichs](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571381173?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Alan Sillitoe – [Saturday Night and Sunday Morning](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780007205028?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780007255603?ref=thebeemagazine.com) David Storey – [A Stinging Delight](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571360321?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [This Sporting Life](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781784873974?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [The Changing Room](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780413703705?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Saville](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781784873967?ref=thebeemagazine.com) John Wain – [Hurry On Down](https://www.waterstones.com/book/hurry-on-down-valancourt-20th-century-classics/john-wain/john-andrew-fredrick/9781948405713?ref=thebeemagazine.com) Keith Waterhouse – [Billy Liar](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780241973646?ref=thebeemagazine.com) [A Guide to This Sporting Life by David StoreyGeorgia Poplett’s introduction to David Storey’s novel and film about a young rugby league star in 1960s Yorkshire, and its place in the Northern Realist and Angry Young Men movements.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/56/fc56b9ab-b4c1-4291-8dc6-e491452ed510/content/images/icon/favicon-c600615d-b216-45d8-bd3b-523a17109bb2.png)The BeeGeorgia Poplett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/56/fc56b9ab-b4c1-4291-8dc6-e491452ed510/content/images/thumbnail/tslscene-efa10db2-9d76-4bd7-acae-7ee3c50ed563.jpg)](https://thebeemagazine.com/a-guide-to-this-sporting-life-by-david-storey/) --- [Tip the Bee](https://thebeemagazine.com/#/portal/support) All donations go towards supporting the Bee’s mission to nurture, publish promote and pay for the best new working-class writing.