Ostensibly an exploration of the Spanish corrida de toros, On Bullfighting begins with a confession. Its author AL Kennedy reveals how, prior to starting the book, she attempted suicide during a bout of depression. What stopped her from jumping to her death was music, specifically the sound of a man tunelessly singing “what has always been my least favourite folk song in all the world, Mairi’s Wedding … Murdering myself to this accompaniment is more than I can bear.”

Why is she telling us this? Because she has faced death and her book is “about people who risk death for a living”. What occurs in the bullring isn’t really a fight, she adds, since no man “can actually fight half a ton or so of bull. It is more complicated, repellent, fascinating, grotesque, sacramental, ugly, ritualistic, haphazard, sacred and blasphemous than any fight.”

On Bullfighting was first published in 1999 though this is a new recording, narrated by Kennedy. It’s with a blend of thoughtfulness, candour and crisp humour that she guides listeners through the history of bullfighting, taking in bulls, breeding practices and Gypsy and Andalusian history and folklore. While Kennedy’s struggles – along with depression, she suffered a displaced disc while researching the book – don’t always sit seamlessly with the bullfighting theme, her experiences as a spectator of this controversial sport are vividly yet dispassionately drawn. Neither a defence nor a denunciation, On Bullfighting delivers the facts while leaving us to make up our own minds.

On Bullfighting is available via Spiracle, 5hr 57min

Further listening

Headshot
Rita Bullwinkel, WF Howes, 5hr 24min
The Booker-listed story of eight female boxers, all in their teens, as they compete in a tournament in Nevada is narrated by Cassandra Campbell.

Wild Houses
Colin Barrett, Penguin Audio, 6hr 50min
Damian Gildea reads this tale of a kidnapping by small-town crooks, set over a single weekend in County Mayo, by the acclaimed writer of Young Skins.