The Last Bell

One of the greatest writers ever to explore the sport of boxing wonders if now might be time to walk away? This is a book about the dizzying complexities of life, the impact of death on a family, searching for hope amid grief and the profound disappointment when a lifelong love begins to sour.

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Donald McRae has followed boxing all his life. In recent years his love has waned, as criminality, doping and dirty money gnaw away at the soul of boxing. 
 
In 2018, grieving the death of his sister and with his parents seriously ill, he sought refuge in boxing again. At just this moment, Tyson Fury completed one of the most shocking comebacks in the history of the sport, proving that it still had the ability to offer thrills and redemption.
 
From Fury’s comeback to the first undisputed heavyweight champion of this century, McRae takes you ringside and into the to the inner sanctums of some of the greatest contemporary fighters. He shows what’s needed to become a champion like Katie Taylor or Oleksandr Usyk, but he also reveals the physical and mental devastation of defeat and, by telling the heartbreaking story of Patrick Day, faces up to the very real threat of death in the ring.
 
In The Last Bell, McRae’s most personal and explosive book, he tries to reconcile the contradictions which lie at the murky heart of a sport he’s followed for 50 years and wonders if this might finally be the time to leave it all behind . . .