Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight

Alexander Fiske-Harrison has spent a year travelling with bullfighters to watch them work in the bullrings and ranches of Spain. Along the way he has entered the ring and ran with the bulls in Pamplona and trained with world famous matador Eduardo Davila Miura and is on a personal quest to fight a bull in the ring with the aim of winning. In a remarkable and controversial book Fiske-Harrison follows the tracks of a whole bullfighting year in Spain. He trains and takes part in the sport himself. He gives us memorable portraits of bull-fighters and bulls, of owners, trainers and fans - of a whole country. Fiske-Harrison offers a fully rounded and involving portrait of a sport as played for centuries and of the arguments that dog it today.

'Whether or not the artistic quality of the bullfight outweighs the moral question of the animals' suffering is something that each person must decide for themselves - as they must decide whether the taste of a steak justifies the death of a cow. But if we ignore the possibility that one does outweigh the other, we fall foul of the charge of self-deceit and incoherence in our dealings with animals.' Alexander Fiske-Harrison

Alexander Fiske-Harrison was born in 1976 and is an English writer and actor. He is best known for writing and acting in The Pendulum in London's West End and contributes regularly to Prospect, Financial Times and the Guardian.