Black Ajax

When Captain Buckley "Mad Buck" Flashman, father of the notorious Harry, sees a black American boxer catch a fly in mid-flight, he realizes this could be the prize rings best fighter ever, not to mention a great investment. In this magnificent re-creation of Regency England, George MacDonald Fraser is at his storytelling best for the powerful, rollicking, and moving tale of Tom Molineaux, a freed slave from New Orleans who challenged Britain's undefeated Tom Cribb. How the "Black Ajax" became as famous a figure in England as Napoleon -- and just as much a threat to its establishment -- passed into boxing legend and created a precedent of modern black prize-fighters.Bringing historical fact spiritedly to life, Black Ajax shows Fraser is, in the words of Kingsley Amis, "a first-rate historical novelist" in whichever era he sets his exuberantly entertainingly stories.