Kate Sekules

Boxing is something women are not supposed to do: a violent and often bloody pastime whose status as a sport is frequently debated. But in this remarkable book, a woman explains for the first time, with eloquence, wit and honesty, how and why she took up boxing.

An English writer who had sung in a punk-rock band and eventually settled in New York, Kate Sekules didn't enter the boxing ring for the money or in pursuit of fame. she did it for complicated reasons that, even after two professional fights, still perplex her. It challenged the stereotype of the fragile, defenceless female. Joining the legendary Gleason's Gym admitted her into a hitherto exclusively male world of tough camaraderie and surprising tenderness-where cornermen cherished their fighters with a maternal compassion. She learnt that what can appear to the unititiated as two people indiscriminataly hitting one another is actually the exercise of precise, geometric skills. She also found out how much it hurts to get bopped full on the nose. But above all she discovered in herself, quite simply a need to fight: the strange, exhilirating challenge of conrolled combat-of climbing through those ropes to become utterly responsible for your own fate.

Opening, complusively, in Kate's corner as,'not exactly ready to rumble,' whe awaits the bell for round one of her first fight, The Boxer's Heart is as much a book about womanhood as it is about sport. Boxing offers her new insights into women's body image and weight worries, into domestic violence, and the dynamics of the sexual relationship-and, most of all, a way of finding out if she can go the distance in life. Funny, frank and fearless, The Boxer's Heart is a winner on all the cards.

Kate Sekules was born in London and is currently the travel editor of Food and Wine magazine in New York. She has written for The New Yorker, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and is also the author of seven guide books to London and New York.

'I had not given a moment's thought to the existence of female boxers, because I did not like boxing. I dislike violence. Nevertheless, the first time ever I threw a punch, I was hooked.'

'Tough but tender...a winner on all the cards.'-Newsweek

Contents

Prefight
1 How did I get here?
2 From A to B (aerobics to boxing)
3 Here we are now
4 Let her come forward
5 The punch that counts
6 I spar how you spar
7 I am a contender
8 Fight time
9 Big belts
10 My heart
Postfight
Acknowledgments… (more)