Writers on Boxing

Reading List

  • #119: ‘The Boxing Diaries’ by Marion Dunn.

    #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… Read more

  • #118: ‘Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer’ by Loïc Wacquant

    #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… Read more

  • #117: ‘The Prizefighters’ by Arlene Schulman

    #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… Read more

  • #116: ‘The Fall’ by Albert Camus

    #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… Read more

  • #115: ‘An Almanac of Twelve Sports’ by William Nicholson and Rudyard Kipling

    #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… Read more

  • #114: ‘Boxing Athenas’ by N’Krumah Lawson Daku

    #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… Read more