Donald McRae is the award-winning author of eleven non-fiction books, which have featured sporting icons, legendary trial lawyers and heart surgeons. He has twice won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year, for Dark Trade and In Black & White. He is a three-time Interviewer of the Year winner and has also won Sports Feature Writer of the Year on three separate occasions for his work in the Guardian. He lives in Hertfordshire.
'In this outstanding and important book, Don McRae's powerful
storytelling shows the courage of Gerry Storey and the people of
the North as they withstand everyday horror. These stories of
bravery through boxing stay with you, and their passion comes out
in every word; their strength in every unassuming anecdote.'
*Author of Fighter, and former middleweight world champion*
'Don McRae is one of the most captivating boxing writers on the
planet. His ability to understand and illuminate his subjects is
extraordinary. He uses the personal stories of four boxers and one
remarkable trainer to articulate how boxing became a unifying force
during those desolate days.'
*Former featherweight world champion*
'A superb tale...His inspirational story celebrates peace and
reconciliation.'
*Daily Telegraph Books of the Year*
'Years of interviews and research have informed McRae’s account of
Storey’s extraordinary courage, and those of the fighters he
reared...The result is as uplifting as it is heartbreaking.'
*Guardian*
'Kaleidoscopic deep-dive into the soul of Ulster boxing from
1969-1985... McRae translates assiduous research and deep,
repeated interviews into effortless storytelling. He just
tells the stories he hears – and fight people tell their stories
with unvarnished authenticity... The stories left him emotionally
drained, and it’s no surprise, because he clearly poured everything
into this exceptional book. Donald McRae revitalises and
records the valour and hope in this moving, definitive salute to a
cause worth fighting for.'
*Irish Times*
‘Donald McRae is a magnificent sportswriter, and covering boxing
his speciality. By any measure, Storey’s tale is an extraordinary
one, which McRae recounts with a novelist’s flair….remarkable’
*Spectator*
'McRae spins an enthralling story of how a hard sport bought hope
in tough times…impossibly moving and bleakly funny’
*i newspaper*
‘In Sunshine or in Shadow is simply brilliant. You feel touched by
every page as you are taken on a crash course of modern Irish
history – boxing and political – and the emotion of it all is
shockingly magnetic.’
*Boxing Scene*
‘McRae is a fine writer and a brilliant interviewer. These two
talents coalesce to help him highlight the courage and honour of
the boxers and their coach.’
*Times Literary Supplement*
‘Donald McRae’s superb new book’
*Catholic Herald*
‘Remarkable…extraordinary’
*Belfast Evening Telegraph*
‘In Sunshine or in Shadow is jaw-dropping at times, brutally sad at
others, an essentially typical Don McRae sports book throughout.
It’s an astonishing life, an often miraculous story. Exactly the
sort of tale that has driven Donald McRae’s career for the past
three and a half decades.'
*Irish Times*
‘A golden era of boxing in Ulster – one punctuated with names such
as Barry McGuigan, Davy Larmour, Charlie Nash and Hugh Russell – is
deftly captured by Donald McRae in a remarkable tale of hope and
redemption'
*Herald*
‘It’s so vast and so much work went into it….it contains hundreds
of hours of interviews that Don McRae did in Belfast, across years
and years, with some of the most notoriously private people in the
world. It is really only a book that Donald McRae could have
written. I think it’s a book that everyone should have on their
shelf….an incredible collection of tales.'
*An Irishman Abroad*
'A new book from Donald McRae is always something to
celebrate. If that new book is about boxing, then all the
better. Locate that book in Ireland and it jumps straight to
the top of my want-to-read list….As Brexit rushes closer and the
possibility of a hard border on the island of Ireland looms large,
the story feels even more poignant. I simply cannot recommend this
book highly enough.'
*Sports Book Reviews*
‘Poignant….fascinating’
*Irish News*
'McRae has applied his effective, but nonetheless magical approach
to tell us how, against a backdrop of extreme violence and murder,
Gerry Storey created an oasis of peace and calm where young men
could learn the noble art and arm themselves with a skill capable
of guiding them out of Northern Ireland’s extended nightmare'
*Sports Book of the Month*
‘The author of eleven books, the latest, In Sunshine Or In Shadow,
McRae masterfully lifts the veil on the glitzy world of sport and
shines a light on the real-life humans who populate its bright
stages’
*Sports Gazette*
‘Ironically, at a time of violence, this uniquely violent sport
provided a blueprint for peace’
*The Times Sports Books of the Year*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |