Tag: amateur boxing
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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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#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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#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…
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#105: ‘The Promise of Women’s Boxing: A Momentous New Era for the Sweet Science’ by Malissa Smith
In The Promise of Women’s Boxing, the follow up to her book A History of Women’s Boxing, author Malissa Smith covers the international developments in women’s boxing between 2012 and 2014. The book is published by Rowman and Littlefield. (This will likely be my last book post for a while as I’m due to start…
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#103: ‘Thirty Dollars and a Cut Eye: 50 years in boxing’ by J. Russell Peltz
Thirty Dollars and a Cut Eye is J. Russell Peltz’s look back at his 50-year career as a boxing promoter and matchmaker. Peltz took his first steps as a promoter in 1969, at the now legendary Blue Horizon in north Philadelphia. At the age of 22 this was, and still would be, a very bold…
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#102: ‘The Grass Arena’ by John Healy
The Grass Arena is the, at times, harrowing autobiography of John Healy, recounting his years living homeless with a severe alcohol addiction. I have been wanting to read this book for a few years now, after watching the documentary about Healy’s life, Barbaric Genius. I had intended it to be a break from reading solely…
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#101: ‘Boxer Handsome’ by Anna Whitwham
Boxer Handsome is Anna Whitwham’s debut novel and was published by Vintage in 2014. Whitwham’s grandfather was an amateur featherweight at the Crown and Manor Boy’s Club in Hoxton, east London, and his involvement with the sport was, no doubt, the seed of her own interest in boxing. The novel revolves around two protagonists: Bobby,…
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#99: ‘Kill The Body, The Head Will Fall’ by Rene Denfeld
‘Kill The Body, The Head Will Fall: A closer look at women, violence, and aggression’ was written by Rene Denfeld, and published by Vintage in 1997. What a pleasant surprise this book turned out to be! I completely expected it to be a personal story about the author’s experiences as an amateur boxer (which I…
Writers on Boxing 