John Jarrett: 5 books

Say hello to the world's only undefeated heavyweight champion, a guy called Rocky Marciano, who defied physical limitations - 'He's too small, too short, too light, too old.' With just a 67-inch reach, two left feet and under six feet tall, tough, hard-hitting Marciano blasted his way to 49 wins,...

This is a cradle-to-grave biography of Mickey Walker, former welterweight (1922–1926) and middleweight champion (1926–1931) of the world, one of the greatest fighters in ring history. He fought at a time when boxing was a major sport with only eight championships, and he held two of them over...

They still call it the most sensational fight ever for the world heavyweight championship, between champion Jack Dempsey and his hammer-fisted Argentine challenger, Luis Angel Firpo. Back in the Roaring Twenties, 85,000 packed into New York's Polo Grounds to see all three minutes fifty-seven seconds...

They called Max Baer the 'Clown Prince of Boxing', but trainer Ray Arcel remembered a night in 1933 when he worked Baer's corner in what was probably Max's greatest triumph, the night he smashed Max Schmeling to defeat in ten brutal rounds. That was no clown. A year later, Baer was heavyweight champion...

‘There is no more carefully chosen yet eclectic anthology series in existence in Britain today’ – Susan Haigh, The Short Review Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover – or more accurately, by its title. This new series aims to reprint the best short stories...