The SLMan Culture List

Frank Warren has spent 40 years working with boxing's most colourful and controversial characters. In his long-awaited autobiography, he reflects on the battles he had to win to reach the top and remain there, not least the battle to stay alive after he was shot at point-blank range in an attempted assassination in 1989. Under Warren's careful stewardship, Frank Bruno, Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan and Tyson Fury all became world champions. With cameo appearances from Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Pink Floyd and the Philadelphia mafia, Frank and Fearless is the unflinchingly candid and hard-hitting memoir of Britain's most famous and influential boxing promoter.

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Ohio Valley Wrestling of Louisville, Kentucky, is a regional wrestling gym whose alumni include Brock Lesnar, The Miz, John Cena, Dave Bautista and Randy Orton. Once a proud finishing school for aspiring pro wrestlers, the gym has hit hard times. Owner Al Snow clings to an old-school wrestling philosophy with a heavy emphasis on storytelling, but despite the love of a few diehard fans, the gym struggles week to week to stay relevant enough to keep its doors open. Wrestlers chronicles the efforts Al and his band of wannabe pros make as they struggle with their personal ambitions and each other while attempting to come together to save this historic gym.

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Vintage Books has repackaged six novels by of one of popular culture’s most enduring and celebrated writers. Designed to be beautifully mesmerising and evocative of Haruki Murakami’s slice of Japan, these collectable gift editions will appeal to those who have yet to enter the strange and surreal world of his books. All six editions have been redesigned by separate Japanese artists, featuring bold, graphic designs and a wrap-around belly band, and will include new introductions from Murakami himself. The six reissues are Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, A Wild Sheep Chase and Sputnik Sweetheart.

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This month, the critically acclaimed series Top Boy returns to Netflix for one more season – set to be the final chapter that will decide who can reign as Top Boy of Summerhouse. Sully’s actions at the end of the last series have rewritten his business rules with Dushane. As new shared problems arise, everything they've built comes under threat from forces outside and within their empire. Can they coexist by the rules of the road they’ve lived by their whole lives in a world that is changing before them? Or can there only be one Top Boy?

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Mike Veeck grew up in the shadow of his hustler father, Hall of Fame baseball owner Bill Veeck. The Veeck name became both legendary and notorious in professional baseball as they introduced fun at ballparks – giveaways, theme nights, fireworks and more. But it all came to a screeching halt when Mike blew up his father's career. Exiled from the game he loved, the younger Veeck spent the next few decades clawing his way up from rock bottom, determined to redeem himself. Directed by Oscar winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol), narrated by Jeff Daniels, and featuring Charlie Day as a younger Veeck, The Saint of Second Chances is wildly unexpected, full of heart, and keeps you laughing through a comeback story unlike any other.

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With his fourth novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason delivers a highly inventive tale. When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave – only to discover that the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister conman, a stalking panther, a beetle: as each inhabitant confronts the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realise that the dark, raucous past is very much alive.

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Enjoyed last month’s recommendation The Last Action Heroes? Now’s a chance to see some of the main players on the screen together again. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on, and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defence and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give ‘new blood’ a whole new meaning.  

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