Tag: sports writing
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#49: ‘Chatteris Thunderbolt’ by Bob Lonkhurst
‘Chatteris Thunderbolt – The Eric Boon Story’ is a biography of Eric Boon, written by Bob Lonkhurst. Despite going to secondary school in Chatteris and walking past a portrait of Dave ‘Boy’ Green everyday, and being very aware of his boxing legacy, I had never heard of Eric Boon – the original boxing Fen Tiger…
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#48: ‘Willie Pep Remembers… Friday’s Heroes’ with Robert Sacchi
‘Friday’s Heroes’ takes a look at the boxers who made their names on TV during the 1950s, appearing on the Friday Night Fights. Featherweight legend Willie Pep remembers the likes of Sandy Saddler, Tony Janiro, Tiger Jones, Tony Canzoneri and ‘Kid’ Gavilan, weaving in personal stories as he does so.
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#47: ‘The Black Lights’ by Thomas Hauser
‘The Black Lights – Inside the World of Professional Boxing’ is an investigation of the world of professional boxing, by Thomas Hauser. The book follows the trials and tribulations of former WBC Super-Lightweight Champion, Billie Costello. I really liked this format, following a boxer who was far from a superstar, and who had to just…
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#46: ‘Cashel Byron’s Profession’ by Bernard Shaw
‘Cashel Byron’s Profession’ is Bernard Shaw’s fictional life story of English champion bare knuckle fighter Cashel Byron. There are some interesting aspects to this story, namely the aspects around how bouts were arranged and held while under the scrutiny of the local authorities. Because of Bernard Shaw’s firm interest in boxing and its history, it…
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#45: ‘It’s your (basic) footwork’ by You Don’t Know
‘It’s your (basic) footwork’ is a short piece of writing and audio from writing collective You Don’t Know. I have been going back and forth with this post as it feels a little self-indulgent – it includes some writing by me and my wife Lizzy. In June 2022 we were invited to submit to KINETIC,…
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#44: ‘Sparring for Luck’ by Stephen ‘Johnny’ Hicks
‘Sparring for Luck’ by Stephen ‘Johnny’ Hicks is the confluence of what might be the three main areas of my cultural life over the past ten years: Socialism, poetry and boxing. This book tells the life story of Stepney-born Stephen Hicks, fortuitously found and published by The Tower Hamlets Arts Project. This is a story…
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#43: ‘Ringside, Hearthside’ by Dave Kaszuba
‘Ringside, Hearthside – Sports Scribe Jane Dixon Embodies Struggle of Jazz Age Women Caught Between Two Worlds’ is an article by Dave Kaszuba originally published in Journalism History. (DOI: 10.1080/00947679.2009.12062796) Jane Dixon regularly wrote about boxing during the 1920s, for both the New York Herald Tribune and New York Tribune, and was, according to Dave…
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#42: ‘The Pugilist at Rest’ by Thom Jones
‘The Pugilist at Rest’ is an award-winning collection of short stories by Thom Jones. Outside of reading about boxing, I cannot believe I hadn’t read anything by Thom Jones previously. This combination of investigating masculinity, mental health problems, self-medication and over-analysing one’s place in society has always been my particular sweet spot when it comes…
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#41: ‘Boxing Nostalgia’ by Alex Daley
‘Boxing Nostalgia – The Good, The Bad and The Weird’ is a collection of articles by Alex Daley, originally published in Boxing News. Between October 2015 and October 2018 Alex Daley authored a regular column for Boxing News, in which he compiled notes and stories about British boxing’s colourful past. This book is full of…
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#40: ‘A Neutral Corner’ by A.J. Liebling
‘A Neutral Corner’ is a collection of essays by A.J. Liebling. In my opinion this collection is a much more varied and superior collection of essays than Liebling’s celebrated ‘The Sweet Science’. I feel as though Liebling’s greatest skill, as with Budd Schulberg and Djuna Barnes, is as an observer of people, and perhaps the…
Writers on Boxing 