Writers on Boxing

Reading List

  • #97: ‘A History of Women’s Boxing’ by Malissa Smith

    #97: ‘A History of Women’s Boxing’ by Malissa Smith

    ‘A History of Women’s Boxing’ by Malissa Smith is the defining publication of women’s participation in boxing, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2014. Extraordinarily well researched, this book brings the reader details and stories of women prizefighters from as early as 1722, when Hannah Hyfield challenged Elizabeth Wilkinson Stokes to meet her at the Read more

  • #96: ‘All The Battles’ by Mann Abu Taleb

    #96: ‘All The Battles’ by Mann Abu Taleb

    ‘All The Battles’ is a boxing-themed novel written by Maan Abu Taleb, published by Hoopoe Fiction in 2017 and translated into English by Robin Moger. The book follows advertising employee Saed Habjouqa as he develops an internet-based obsession with boxing, which eventually leads him to seek out a famed gym to train for himself. Not Read more

  • #95: ‘The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones’ by Stewart Home

    #95: ‘The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones’ by Stewart Home

    ‘The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones’ is Stewart Home’s attempt at piecing together the mysterious life of infamous cat burglar Raymond Jones. The book was originally published as a limited edition run of 500 copies by Test Centre, now known as Prototype Publishing. The book is now available from Cripplegate Books. (I used Read more

  • #94: ‘Not Just A Game – Sporting Poetry’ edited by Andy Croft and Sue Dymoke

    #94: ‘Not Just A Game – Sporting Poetry’ edited by Andy Croft and Sue Dymoke

    ‘Not Just A Game’ is an anthology of sporting poems, collected and edited by Andy Croft and Sue Dymoke, and published by Five Leaves press in 2006. I was questioning whether to post about this book as there are only three boxing-related poems, by two authors, in a collection with 200+ pages. However, I do Read more

  • #93: ‘The Boxer’ by Nikesh Shukla

    #93: ‘The Boxer’ by Nikesh Shukla

    ‘The Boxer’ is Nikesh Sukla’s Young Adult-genre novel, published by Hodder Children’s Books in 2019. The boxer in question is teenager Sunil, the victim of a racist attack in Bristol, who eventually finds himself in a boxing gym in an attempt to learn self-defence. As he begins to train, ‘Sunny’ battles the traumatic effects of Read more

  • #92: ‘The Big Smoke’ by Adrian Matejka

    #92: ‘The Big Smoke’ by Adrian Matejka

    ‘The Big Smoke’ is Adrian Matejka’s 2013 collection of poetry which tracks, in lyrical form, the life and career of heavyweight champion ‘Papa’ Jack Johnson. There was a period of my life in which I was completely entrenched in poetry. Between 2014 and 2020 I did little else than write poetry and interview/record hundreds of Read more