Andy Bull’s enjoyable first work describes itself as a “nonfiction novel”, which is an apt description for a book that, while closely adhering to historical fact, nevertheless allows itself plenty of authorial leeway in presenting those facts.

Following the fortunes of four of the contestants in the 1932 Winter Olympics – the first such event to be held outside Europe – including the dashing Billy Fiske, playboy Clifford Gray, intellectual Eddie Eagan and roguish Jay O’Brien, Bull, an Observer writer, narrates the next decade or so in their lives in unpretentious prose that is unafraid of colourful elaboration.

Speed Kings is a fast-paced read that manages to make some insightful points about professional and amateur sport in the 1930s, and becomes genuinely thrilling when describing Fiske’s subsequent career as a fighter pilot in the RAF. The immediacy and easy colloquialism of the prose style might put off some readers, but a general audience will warm to this unpretentious and gripping yarn.

Speed Kings is published by Bantam Press (£17.99). Click here to order it for £14.39