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Ragged Raven Boxing
Bare Fists by Bob Mee Published October 1998 Price £15 Available from book shops, via www.amazon.co.uk
or direct from Ragged Raven Press To pay by credit card or send cheques (UK sterling) or International Money Orders made payable to Ragged Raven Press to 1 Lodge Farm, Snitterfield, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 0LR England.
Reviews The
bare-knuckle heroes are now largely forgotten, though visitors to London
cemeteries may wonder at the monuments marking the resting places of
Cribb, John Jackson, Tom Spring and Tom Sayers. Such men were heroes, the
first sports stars. Their lives were often brutal and short, their stories
and their world colourful and extraordinary. Bob Mee has done the ghosts
of the past and the readers of today a service. His account of the deeds
of boxers from James Figg, who taught "the noble science of
defence" in the early 18th century, to John L. Sullivan at the end of
the 19th, is an admirable introduction to the
subject....................highly recommended. ....meticulously
researched and thunderously appealing new classic. Bob
Mee has created a marvellous little book, bursting with anecdotes, told
with no small measure of humour .... There are tales of prodigious
gambling, drinking, womanising, bravery and skullduggery; memories of
those who were heroes to all who knew them, and those who died in the
gutter .... Mee has created a gem. Mee
weaves a splendid tale of brutality .... a fascinating account of all our
yesterdays in the ring. Mee's
book is a loving look at a neglected corner of boxing history ... he
approaches his subject with the elegant style and wry humour which make
him one of the best British boxing writers, and the result is an
unexpected delight... As
Mee makes clear, in a way which is bizarrely affectionate despite the
brutality it portrays, bare-knuckle fighting was big stuff in England. A
terrific historical and anecdotal look at pugilistic practice. Mee
vividly chronicles the evolution of the sport in its pre-glove
days...oddly fascinating. Sports
history buffs will revel in this anecdote-rich overview of a sport that
was hugely popular from the mid-18th to the 19th century.
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