Kasia Boddy
The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at the Ringside
Edited by Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra (University of Chicago Press, £14.50)
Forget the general election and all that’s followed— for some the most dramatic night of the year was 29th April. That was when an apparently unbreakable Ukrainian finally yielded to a personable young man from Watford. In other words, Britain’s Anthony Joshua fought off Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko to unite three heavyweight boxing titles. Joshua is 27 years old and before the fight had a carefully curated 18-0 record— every win by knockout; Klitschko, at 41, and with 68 professional fights behind him, was (rather charitably) said to be entering the “twilight of his career.”