A01=Richard Cohen
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ancient Egypt
ancient Rome
Author_Richard Cohen
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Category1=Non-Fiction
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Category=NHT
Category=NHW
COP=United Kingdom
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duelling
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eq_history
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fencing
Language_English
medieval Japan
Olympic fencing
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Price_€10 to €20
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softlaunch
sword fighting
swordplay
Product details
- ISBN 9781847396709
- Dimensions: 130 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 04 Mar 2010
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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‘A seminal book about swordplay’ Rick Broadbent, The Times
‘The definitive study, hugely readable, of man’s most deadly art’ Simon Winchester
The classic history of sword fighting, as told by national sabre champion and Olympic fencer Richard Cohen.
The art and science of sword fighting goes back almost to the dawn of civilization and has been an obsession for much of mankind throughout recorded history. Evidence of this passion is all around us to this day: we shake hands to show that we are not reaching for our sword. A gentleman offers a lady his right arm because his sword was once attached to his left hip. Men button their jackets to the right to give them swifter access to their swords.
From the Roman arena to feudal Japan and from the duellists of Europe to the development of modern-day Olympic fencing, Richard Cohen traces the course of swordsmanship with wit and erudition in a fascinating and wonderfully wide-ranging account. He lets us see swordplay as graceful and brutal, balletic and deadly, technical and fiercely competitive – the most romantic of martial arts. Superbly written and impeccably researched, By the Sword is a tribute to a perilous but beautiful skill, the mastery of which for centuries defined what it meant to be a man.
‘The definitive study, hugely readable, of man’s most deadly art’ Simon Winchester
The classic history of sword fighting, as told by national sabre champion and Olympic fencer Richard Cohen.
The art and science of sword fighting goes back almost to the dawn of civilization and has been an obsession for much of mankind throughout recorded history. Evidence of this passion is all around us to this day: we shake hands to show that we are not reaching for our sword. A gentleman offers a lady his right arm because his sword was once attached to his left hip. Men button their jackets to the right to give them swifter access to their swords.
From the Roman arena to feudal Japan and from the duellists of Europe to the development of modern-day Olympic fencing, Richard Cohen traces the course of swordsmanship with wit and erudition in a fascinating and wonderfully wide-ranging account. He lets us see swordplay as graceful and brutal, balletic and deadly, technical and fiercely competitive – the most romantic of martial arts. Superbly written and impeccably researched, By the Sword is a tribute to a perilous but beautiful skill, the mastery of which for centuries defined what it meant to be a man.
Richard Cohen is the former publishing director of Hutchinson and Hodder & Stoughton and the author of Chasing the Sun, By the Sword, and How To Write Like Tolstoy. Works he has edited have gone on to win the Pulitzer, Booker and Whitbread/Costa prizes, and twenty-one have been #1 bestsellers. For more than 35 years he has written, edited, and lectured on numerous subjects around the world, from talks on the Queen Mary 2 to the First World War battlefields of France and Belgium. For seven years he was a visiting professor in creative writing at the university of Kingston-upon-Thames in London. Among the authors he has edited are Madeleine Albright, Vanessa Redgrave, Sebastian Faulks, Studs Terkel, John Keegan, Richard Holmes, John le Carre, Jeffrey Archer, Sir Harold Evans, Tony Benn, Barbara Castle, William Trevor, Kingsley Amis and Fay Weldon. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
For two years he was program director of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, and during his tenure it became the largest book festival in the world. Five times U.K. national saber champion, Cohen was selected for the British Olympic fencing team in 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 and has been four times world veteran champion. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Book Review and most British quality newspapers.
For two years he was program director of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, and during his tenure it became the largest book festival in the world. Five times U.K. national saber champion, Cohen was selected for the British Olympic fencing team in 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 and has been four times world veteran champion. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Book Review and most British quality newspapers.
