Category: Uncategorized
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#121: ‘The Two Philosophers’ by Irvine Welsh
As mentioned in my previous post about a short fight scene in The Odyssey, I’ve been wondering for a while whether or not to include Irvine Welsh’s short story, ‘The Two Philosophers’, from his short story collection The Acid House. Rereading it today I realised why it came to mind reading Emily Wilson’s translation of…
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#120: ‘The Odyssey’ by Homer – translated by Emily Wilson
I’ve been meaning to read Emily Wilson‘s translation of The Odyssey for a few years now. (I’ve been trying to work this one out but this is at least the third translation I’ve read of The Odyssey, as well as possibly some abridged or age appropriate versions when I was a child.) I decided that…
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#119: ‘The Boxing Diaries’ by Marion Dunn.
The Boxing Diaries, published by Saraband, documents Marion Dunn’s later-life love affair with boxing training. Following Dunn’s first boxing training session at the age of fifty we follow the author through a few years of physical and emotional ups and downs, in and out of the gym. We are quickly presented with a very familiar…
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#118: ‘Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer’ by Loïc Wacquant
Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer, published by Oxford University Press, is Loïc Wacquant’s personal and professional account of his time spent at the Woodlawn boxing gym in Chicago’s south side. So… I think it’s taken me nearly a year to finish this book! It’s been a bit of a battle of perseverance…
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#117: ‘The Prizefighters’ by Arlene Schulman
‘The Prizefighters’ is comprised of selected interviews carried out by, and photographs taken by, photojournalist Arlene Schulman, edited together into a sort of retrospective of a career covering the sport of boxing. The photographs (definitely the strongest aspect of the book) are really special and a treat for someone who has read so many boxing…
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#116: ‘The Fall’ by Albert Camus
I’ve been reading Albert Camus’ The Fall this week as I continue to think about what exactly it is that draws me to his writing. And while I had my head in this extended prose monologue I came across a (very) brief mention of the French-Algerian middleweight boxer ‘Le Bombardier Marocain’ Marcel Cerdan. It’s actually…
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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.…
Writers on Boxing 