Episode 27: Tony Parsons - The Art of Boxing

For author and columnist Tony Parsons, boxing matters. He spars every week. Full-contact, no-holds-barred, in a searching examination of skill, courage and fear. On a journey through the cultural landscape of the 20th and now 21st century, Tony Parsons discovers a cast of cultural giants from Hemingway to TS Elliot and Joyce Carol Oates, to Picasso, Braque and Manet who shared a passion for this ancient art - both in their work and in their life. The sport was nearly knocked out in the sixties by a potent combination of peace and love but in the digital age, boxing is getting up off the canvas. A new generation of men and women are discovering that boxing has little to do with violence and everything to do with the search for self-knowledge.