The Problem with the Seventh Year - Paperback

by Nicholas Pierpan (Author)

You've got to throw every punch with 'bad intentions.' If you don't, you're better off becoming an educated gentleman and not a boxer. And don't kid yourself: you can't be both.

A young man's boxing career conflicts with his life as a medical student.

Working as a cut-man, the consequences of his double-life catch up with him.

The Problem with the Seventh Year is a bloody, unflinching drama about the fine line between being clever and being a coward.

This edition was published to coincide with the production at White Bear Theatre in October 2025.

Author Biography

Nicholas Pierpan's most recent play, The Maddening Rain, had a successful London run before going on a UK tour and to New York City's 2011 Brits Off-Broadway festival. Nicholas has twice won the Cameron Mackintosh Award for New Writing for Too Much the Sun and The Problem with the Seventh Year. Nicholas was also a finalist for the 2009 Yale Drama Prize for Devolution. His short play Bird was recently chosen for The Miniaturists at the Arcola Theatre. Another short piece, Something Came Out, was selected for the 2009 Off Cut Festival. Nicholas won the 2009 BAFTA/Script Factory Serious Screenwriting Award. In 2010, he was chosen by Faber for their screenwriting academy. Nicholas was commissioned by BAFTA-award winning Little Brother Productions to create a six-part television drama about a London school and was also selected for the 2010 BBC Sparks Radio Residency. He has since written an Afternoon Play for BBC Radio4 (Take a Virtual Girl Like You), an episode for BBC Radio7's Man in Black series (The Printed Name) and appeared on BBC Radio3's The Verb (with From a Distant Room). Nicholas has published his poetry in Poetry Review, the Guardian Review, Granta/British Council New Writing, Tower Poetry Review, the Liberal and elsewhere; his first volume is forthcoming. He holds a PhD in English Literature from Oxford University. He lectures on film and reviews fiction for The Times.