Given the title of this book, anyone expecting a ‘no holds barred’ account of Manuel Escribano’s career as a torero - a book along the lines of José Arroyo Joselito’s autobiography, or the biography of Iván Fandiño written by the late matador’s apoderado - will be disappointed. What we have instead is a straightforward autobiography, a mainly chronological story in which some periods of the torero’s career are difficult but no one is criticised, let alone named. “This is how the life of a torero is,” appears to be the book’s message, and Manuel Escribano is thankful for the resilience he has built up, especially in the early years, to cope with temporadas in which he appears in very few corridas and to come back strong after gorings which, not so long ago, would have proved fatal.

Escribano sums up his philosophy as follows: “I’ve never held a grudge against people I felt were letting me down, or an apoderado who rejected me, or an empresario who didn’t put me on, or a ganadero who didn’t pay attention to me, or a compañero who was not there when perhaps he should have been. Looking upon things in this way gave me mental strength and enabled me to keep going, always being truly happy. It’s not worth wasting your time and your energy, nor cloud your happiness, dwelling on sad things or bad actions. I believe being this way has meant I’ve enjoyed things even more when the good times have arrived.”

Perhaps the only individual criticised by name in the book is Simon Casas, who managed Escribano’s career in 2014 for just one season. “He was actually just going to join the management team,” writes Escribano. “It’s something this French empresario habitually does - some new matador has a triumph and he aims to take him on. This way of hoarding new toreros in the end complicates how a manager dedicates himself to you and takes forward your career […] In his head, he held numbers, bullrings, problems… and, last of all, you. Eventually, during the season in which he managed me, I could only have a few brief and inconsequential conversations with Simón. We didn’t speak about any plan or about how things were going. I truly don’t understand this kind of interest, as I’ve said, for hoarding toreros and then not dedicating yourself to them. It may be done to control and influence the taurine world. I’m not part of the current system in which the apoderados no longer dedicate themselves body and soul to their toreros, and don’t live their daily commitments with them, sharing the hopes of triumph and the suffering of troubles.”

Casas took Escribano on the year after the sevillano’s breakthrough triumph with the Miura bull ‘Datilero’ during Sevilla’s April feria - a corrida he managed to be contracted for after eight years of obscurity when El Juli, making a gesture by featuring in the feria’s miurada, was injured and couldn’t appear after all. Although, on one level, this autobiography is uncontroversial, it has some nice touches in it in Escribano’s approach towards telling his story. For one, he gives space to appraising the key bulls in his career - the miuras ‘Datilero’, ‘Bandolero’, ‘Tahonero’ and ‘Choricero’; the adolfo ‘Baratero’; and the victorinos ‘Cobradiezmos’ and ‘Patatero’. Secondly, there is no loud trumpeting of his triumphs: instead, Manuel prefers to include the comments of critics that were made at the time. There is a nice last-minute addition to the book as well where the matador’s friend, Antonio Ramírez de Arellano, reports on his unforgettable performance in this year’s Feria de Abril with the victorino ‘Fisgador’ after being injured by his first bull of the afternoon.

In addition to the constant background of management arrangements, either as an independent or as part of an empresario’s offerings, the book focuses on the lot of a matador who is associated with facing toros duros. On the one level, Escribano accepts this lot: on another, he bemoans the lack of opportunities to appear alongside the figuras with animals more suited to toreo.

For this reader, the book contained two surprises. The first was Manuel’s stated comfort with el túnel - the system in which toreros take on festejos on the understanding that the minimum laid down payment arrangements will not apply. Escribano argues that this is sometimes the only way in which toreros with few opportunities can get in front of bulls, and he has no problem with it providing the reduction in earnings is shared equally amongst the jefe and his cuadrilla. The other was the matador’s assertion that, after the indulto of ‘Cobradiezmos’ and prior to his serious goring at Alicante in 2016, he was on course to head that season’s escalafón. He says he had been contracted to appear in some 60 corridas in Spain: the escalafón that year was headed by Alberto López Simón, El Fandi and Sebastián Castella, with 68, 55 and 49 corridas respectively, so Escribano’s claim may well be correct.

As well as telling the story of his life, Manuel gives space to discussing toreando in Madrid, France and Latin America; facing the bulls of Victorino and Adolfo Martín and miuras; his cuadrillas and other toreros; his interests outside bullfighting (chiefly hunting); and what the future may hold, both for himself and for la Fiesta. His future as a matador de toros, he says, will depend on how long he can maintain 100% physical and mental fitness. As for bullfighting, he makes the point that it should be regarded as non-political; that it is an important activity economically; that this unique spectacle requires more imagination and promotion, given that it now competes with many other cultural offerings; and also that it would benefit from reforms by government authorities, e.g. the role of bullfight presidents. While he doesn’t think the situation with las empresas will change in the short term, he remains hopeful that bulls’ trapío will revert to the animals’ natural state - “A bull’s ferocity and aggression is not determined by how much it weighs on the scales.”

All in all, the book, produced to celebrate Escribano’s 20th anniversary of his alternativa, provides an interesting insight into the career of an established matador of toros duros.