THERE can’t be many institutions that have been praised by both Charles Dickens and the Queen Mother.

Such is the fame of The Sporting Life.

Dickens, the man who wrote A Tale Of Two Cities and Oliver Twist no less, singled it out for its “range of information and profundity of knowledge”.

The Queen Mother was briefer.

“Of course I read the Sporting Life,” was her simple endorsement of the paper which brought its readers a comprehensive mix of racing form and tips along with sports views and news.

Sadly, after 139 years of publication, the Sporting Life was printed for the last time in 1998.

But one man has refused to let the paper go quietly into the night.

James Lambie spent 24 years working for the ‘Life’ after joining from the Press Association’s racing department in 1974. He became the paper’s chief northern correspondent in 1982 and remained there until it closed.

Since then, he has spent most of the last decade ensuring the Life lived on after death.

His book, The Story Of Your Life: A History of The Sporting Life Newspaper, charts the progress of the paper from its first day in 1859 to its last.

It’s not just a collection of stories, however.

You can almost hear the typewriters clattering and see the smoke-filled Fleet Street office. For Lambie, who lives in Huttons Ambo, it was a labour of love.

“It needed to be done,” he said. “The Sporting Life was a British institution and the story had never been told before. It made a tremendous story and was waiting to be told.

“If I had realised how long it was going to take, I would never have started it. It was finished in September 2008, and it took about nine or ten years in total.

“I was lucky enough to have the best mates around me (working there). It wasn’t the most disciplined of offices. It was amazing at times that we did manage to produce a paper. Everyone was so dedicated to it and lived for the paper.”

Dedication was certainly what was required when Lambie decided to take on the task of recording the Life’s highs and lows.

“I did it thanks to the marvellous British Library at Collingdale in north London,” he added. “It is a great treasure house for historical research. I waded through thousands of microfilms and volumes of books – not only at Collingdale but at the library at St Pancras as well. I went down twice a year for a month and it was probably around 16 months in total.

“It was a great relief to get it out and I have been very flattered by the reviews it has had. It makes me feel rather humble – but it needed to be done.”

Horse racing, of course, forms the core of the book but, as the paper did, Lambie has delved through the archives to tell the tales from some of the other massive sporting events it covered throughout the years.

So there is the story of Captain Webb’s Channel swim in 1875 and the affair of the French correspondent who was killed in a duel over an article he had written.

Neither has Lambie sugar-coated the story, despite his obvious love for the Life.

There are no rose-tinted spectacles when covering the libel case between the paper and the training team of Lynda and Jack Ramsden and jockey Kieren Fallon.

What he wanted most to do was to revive memories and he has certainly done that.

“I received a phone call from the widow of Tom Nicholls, who joined the Life after the war – initially as a Newmarket man and then as main correspondent until the late 1960s,” he added.

“She is 97 now and she phoned me up to thank me for the nice things I said about her husband. I told the truth as it was reported – he had retired before I joined the Life.

“He was one of the main reporters for many years – it was marvellous that she had taken the time to phone me up.”

And his favourite part of the book?

Lambie said: “I found researching the years during World War One fascinating and the revelations that came about the anti-sports parliamentarians trying to get racing stopped at any cost.

“The Government vacillated, banning it one day and putting it back on the next. The other thing I really enjoyed researching, and I think it is unique, was coming across the fact that three jockeys – all champion jockeys – had ridden the same horse in the Grand National over three years and all were subsequently killed on the racecourse within two years of each other.”

The Story Of Your Life is available, priced £25, at bookshops and at www.amazon.co.uk