Writers on Boxing

Reading List

  • #21: ‘Berserk’ by Don Stradley

    #21: ‘Berserk’ by Don Stradley

    The subtitle for ‘Berserk’ by Don Stradley is ‘The Shocking Life and Death of Edwin Valero’, which is one of the most succinct and apt taglines for a book that I’ve come across. Even within the confines of boxing, which is full of wild stories, Valero’s is truly shocking. This is mainly a tale of Read more

  • #20: ‘The Bittersweet Science’ edited by Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra

    #20: ‘The Bittersweet Science’ edited by Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra

    ‘The Bittersweet Science’ is a collection of fifteen essays about American boxing and boxers, edited by Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra. Now, this is no judgement on this book, but I almost have no recollection of reading it, though this has much more to do with the fact that I read this book around 18 Read more

  • #19: ‘War, Baby’ by Kevin Mitchell

    #19: ‘War, Baby’ by Kevin Mitchell

    ‘War, Baby’ by Kevin Mitchell is a book centring on the ill-fated 1995 world title bout between Nigel Benn and Gerald McLellan. I have to start by saying that if you, like me, hold any conflict about watching boxing as entertainment, and the safety and wellbeing of the boxers, then this book is not going Read more

  • #18: ‘Nosher’ by Nosher Powell (and I’m sure a ghost writer)

    #18: ‘Nosher’ by Nosher Powell (and I’m sure a ghost writer)

    ‘Nosher’ by Nosher Powell is the autobiography of boxer, and TV and film stunt man, Nosher Powell. I normally avoid books about self-titled ‘hard men’, unless the lives of the men are particularly interesting outside of the violence. I got this book because Powell is from the same part of south London as a lot Read more

  • #17: ‘My Sisters and I at a New York Prizefight’ by Djuna Barnes

    #17: ‘My Sisters and I at a New York Prizefight’ by Djuna Barnes

    ‘My Sisters and I at a New York Prizefight’ is an article taken from ‘Vivid and Repulsive as the Truth’, a collection of the early works of avant-garde writer Djuna Barnes. The article describes Barnes and a group of women friends attending a boxing event in 1914, at Brown’s Athletic Club in New York, headlined Read more

  • #16: ‘Shadow Box’ by George Plimpton

    #16: ‘Shadow Box’ by George Plimpton

    ‘Shadow Box’ by George Plimpton is an example of a boxing book regularly making ‘top ten’-style lists. Plimpton is best known for a series of books he wrote as a ‘participatory journalist’, in which he played (backup) quarterback for the Detroit Lions, trained as an ice hockey goalie with the Boston Bruins, and, in this Read more