Category: Uncategorized
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#115: ‘An Almanac of Twelve Sports’ by William Nicholson and Rudyard Kipling
Just a quick ‘bonus’ blog post as I spotted this wonderful book in Sanders of Oxford during a visit to the city at the weekend. We were in the shop looking at old maps and prints and spotted ‘An Almanac of Twelve Sports’, illustrated by William Nicholson, on the way out of the shop. The…
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#114: ‘Boxing Athenas’ by N’Krumah Lawson Daku
‘Boxing Athenas’ is a photographic essay by artist N’Krumah Lawson Daku. This project began in 2010 as a way of documenting female boxers at Parisian club Boxing Beats Aubervilliers. As with many documentations of women’s boxing of this era, the project takes the feel of capturing something ‘underground’. Whilst only fifteen years old, the project…
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#113: ‘The Last Bell: Life, Death and Boxing’ by Donald McRae
The Last Bell: Life, Death and Boxing, published by Simon and Schuster, is Donald McRae’s exploration of grief, sporting and political corruption, and is most likely his final book on the subject of boxing. The book cover features a painting by the wonderfully talented Amanda Kelley. This book is a follow-up of sorts to McRae’s…
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#112: ‘Soft Tissue Damage’ by Anna Whitwham
Soft Tissue Damage by Anna Whitwham (Rough Trade Books) is that rare but wonderful thing: a new boxing book to preorder, forget about, and then be surprised by as it falls through the letterbox. This book falls into the category of boxing book which isn’t really ‘about’ boxing, or boxers, promoters, venues, or famous bouts.…
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#111: ‘Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments’ by Saidiya Hartman
In ‘Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments’, Saidiya Hartman uses extensive research of a range of archival materials to expand, retell and imagine the lives of black women born in America in the early twentieth century – the first generation after emancipation. I came across this book as it’s on the reading list of my current module…
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#110: ‘Chasing The Great Gatsby: Freddie Welsh’s Saga’ by Gene Pantalone
‘Chasing The Great Gatsby’ is essentially a biography of former world lightweight champion Freddie Welsh, by Gene Pantalone. There is, however, a large twist to this book which sets it apart from other boxer biographies: Pantalone’s theory that F. Scott Fitzgerald based the character of Jay Gatsby, protagonist of ‘The Great Gatsby’, on Welsh. This…
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#109: ‘President of Pandemonium’ by Luke G. Williams
‘President of Pandemonium’ is Luke G. Williams’ attempt to document the wild life story of 1990s heavyweight prospect Ike Ibeabuchi. Published by Hamilcar Noir. This might seem quite a claim considering some of the crazy life stories written about in the books on this blog, but this might be the saddest boxing story I’ve read.…
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#108: ‘Going for Gold’ by Lisa Lintott
‘Going for Gold’ by Lisa Lintott is a play based on the remarkable and sad story of Frankie Lucas. The play is currently on at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, London, until 30 November 2024. The play text is published by Salamander Street. Born in St. Vincent, Lucas moved to Croydon, south London as a…
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#107: ‘Pugilistic Queer Performance: Working Through and Working Out’ by Fintan Walsh
‘Pugilistic Queer Performance: Working Through and Working Out’ by Professor Fintan Walsh was published in volume 26, issue 4 of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and is also available to download (minus the featured images) via the Birkbeck University website. Walsh is currently Head of the School of Creative Arts, Culture and…
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#106: ‘Sweet Fighting Man: Ring of Truth’ by Melanie Lloyd
Hi! It’s been a couple of months since I last posted. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m preparing to start a creative writing MA so have a lot of pre-reading (and writing!) that I’ve chosen to get into ahead of that course beginning. Also, for any of you that don’t already know, Lizzy…
Writers on Boxing 