Writers on Boxing

Reading List

  • #34: ‘Old Holborn Book of Boxing’ edited by Peter Wilson

    #34: ‘Old Holborn Book of Boxing’ edited by Peter Wilson

    Published in 1969, the ‘Old Holborn Book of Boxing’ is a collection of articles, edited by Peter Wilson, about a number of boxers, including Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Sandy Sadler, Benny Lynch and Henry Cooper. There’s also a quiz – which I did very badly at! Read more

  • #33: ‘East End Born and Bled’ by Jeff Jones

    #33: ‘East End Born and Bled’ by Jeff Jones

    ‘East London Born and Bled – The Remarkable Story of Boxing in London’ by Jeff Jones. I really enjoyed reading this book and being led through the east end of London via its boxing clubs, gyms and venues, most of which don’t exist anymore. Though luckily for the boxing historians out there, east London does… Read more

  • #32: ‘Fen Tiger’ by Bob Lonkhurst

    #32: ‘Fen Tiger’ by Bob Lonkhurst

    ‘Fen Tiger – The Success of Dave “Boy” Green’ is an official biography compiled and written by Bob Lonkhurst. I was born in south London but when I was young my parents moved to Cambridgeshire and I ended up attending secondary school at Cromwell Community College in Chatteris. Sport, mainly rugby, was a big part… Read more

  • #31: ‘The Woman in the Corner’ by Gilbert Odd

    #31: ‘The Woman in the Corner’ by Gilbert Odd

    ‘The Woman in the Corner – Her Influence on Boxing’ is a collection of 25 essays about the wives, girlfriends and mothers of boxers, written by Gilbert Odd. This book was published in 1978 so I wasn’t expecting it to share the more enlightened language readers expect today, when it comes to discussing women’s roles… Read more

  • #30: ‘Hook to the Chin’ by Bertolt Brecht

    #30: ‘Hook to the Chin’ by Bertolt Brecht

    ‘Hook to the Chin’ is a short story by Bertolt Brecht, written between 1924-1933. ‘Hook to the Chin’ is a story about four men attending an evening of boxing at the Berlin Sportpalast. In a bar before the event one of the men shares a tale about a bantamweight named Freddy ‘The Hook’ Meinke. I… Read more

  • #29: ‘The Fight’ by Norman Mailer

    #29: ‘The Fight’ by Norman Mailer

    ‘The Fight’ is Norman Mailer’s first-hand account of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s famous meeting in Kinshasa, Zaïre in 1975, for the world heavyweight title. ‘The Fight’ is one of those classic books that regularly appears in the regurgitated online ‘top-ten’ lists of boxing books that you must read! Obviously, the history of professional boxing… Read more