dr_devious wrote:"Hands of Stone" by Christian Giudice is a fine read, especially if you're a Roberto Duran fan
didn't warm to that one.
Hugh Mcilvanney's On Boxing is one of my personal faves, though I gather not everyone likes his 'wordy' style.
I got this on a market stall for 4 quid! It's brilliant and you can dip into it anywhere at all cos it's all previews/ match reports so it doesn't matter.
I was therefore surprised to discover a few years later that the bloke who serves up such pure drivel in the Sunday Times sport supplement week in week out is the self-same Mr Mcilvanney. It's a weird one alright. Not one single page in M.O.B. fails to both inform and entertain and I gave up with the Sunday Times as I was fed up of going back to the start of one of his many sentences, yet again.......as Mike Tyson (no idiot by any stretch) summed up when talking about how he tried reading Tolstoy when he was in prison "people shouldn't really read that sh*t".......if he read Mcilvanney in the Times he'd probably say the same thing.
However - this book is definitely from before he got a job writing rubbish for pompous people with too much spare time, imho.
Wow, I can't believe what is being written about Hugh McIlvanney. Do you really think a brilliant writer should dumb down his prose for the sake of some anti-intellectual, mentally impoverished illiterates?
You should encourage your children to read as many book as possible growing up, including McIlvanney. It will expand their vocabulary and imagination, and will ensure they're far less likely to grow up into one of those inarticulate adults who cannot express their thoughts. This kind of nurturing can even lead them to extremely well paid, top level jobs.
loaded_gloves wrote:Wow, I can't believe what is being written about Hugh McIlvanney. Do you really think a brilliant writer should dumb down his prose for the sake of some anti-intellectual, mentally impoverished illiterates?
You should encourage your children to read as many book as possible growing up, including McIlvanney. It will expand their vocabulary and imagination, and will ensure they're far less likely to grow up into one of those inarticulate adults who cannot express their thoughts. This kind of nurturing can even lead them to extremely well paid, top level jobs.
That's a somewhat patronising attitude. I would actually tend to agree with NEBF to a degree in that I find McIlvanney verbose on occasion these days.
I 'think' it happened at some conference or other in the states. I might be getting my stories confused but I think Hugh called Mailer a 'Don King shill' or something like that, and the slanging match was ended by hughie lamping him.
Also picked a fight with our 'Enery too when he was pissed up! Theres a quote along the lines of "i'm thankful Henry has a kindly nature, it would have been a short fight and a long recovery", lol.
Mensa07 wrote:I 'think' it happened at some conference or other in the states. I might be getting my stories confused but I think Hugh called Mailer a 'Don King shill' or something like that, and the slanging match was ended by hughie lamping him.
.
fking fantastic, thanks
interesting he actually managed to get near Mailer, I believe Mailer's MO was to start a ruckus only when he had one or more fairly large men to hide behind
There's also the story of Hugh at a testimonial dinner for Geoff Hurst, after a group of journalists got drunk and one of them fell of the stage whilst singing My Way, a fist fight started, but Hugh went one better by stripping off to the waist to take on all comers!
I think the oddest of those type of stories I've read is either Pepe Correa knocking Angelo Dundee spark out or Jackie Gleason asking a persistent heckler to step outside and then getting KTFO by Tony Galento.
On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates is an interesting read too, looking at the sport from an outsider/female perspective. I'd recommend it, think its only a few quid on amazon.
I wonder how many boxing pieces Hugh has done since the last book, surely it's time we had a volume II.
Someone mentioned Heinz - has anybody read Leonard Gardner's LA classic Fat City? About a down and out clubfighter making a comeback whilst an amateur star turns pro. Brilliantly bleak. Pure art.
