Fraser was always excellent describing sports competitions - this is his one attempt, to my knowledge, to put that front and centre. It's a historical biography of a real boxer, Tom Molineaux, a black boxer in Napoleon-era England - Beau Brummel and the like. There were a number of real people who I don't know much about I assume it's accurate. Fraser throws in Flashman's dad.
It's an interesting story, especially if you don't know what's going to happen. The one thing I struggled with was the endless racist language Fraser has characters use to describe Tom - ape and so on. I mean he goes on and on. I know the argument would be "that's what people thought" but it's endless, also every character calls him a savage. With this and Joe from Flashman and the Angels of the Lord Fraser had thuggish brutal black people on the brain in the 1990s.
Aside from that it is skilful.
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