As work continues on A Thousand Blows – a TV drama set in a fictionalised 1880s East London boxing world, starring a character loosely based on boxer Hezekiah Moscow aka Ching Hook – I have cause to occasionally pop Moscow’s name/s into the British Newspaper Archive and see if anything new has appeared since my… Read More A small and unreliable bit of information about the disappearance of Hezekiah Moscow
This short interview with Jack Wannop is reproduced here as it appeared in The Sporting Life on Saturday 28 September 1889. My only edits are the paragraphing and photographs. It was published after this wonderful interview with his opponent Jem Smith, under the headline A Chat with the Champions. We learn very little, but it… Read More A Chat With the Champions Part II: JACK WANNOP IN TRAINING
I present to you here, in full, a copy of The Sporting Life‘s interview with Jem Smith which appeared in print on Saturday 28 September 1889, two days before his boxing match with Jack Wannop. I have introduced paragraphs for ease-of-reading, and inserted an occasional photograph, but the text is otherwise reproduced verbatim. It is… Read More A Chat With the Champions Part I: JEM SMITH IN TRAINING
On the 23rd July 1889, Jack Wannop’s backer called at the offices of The Sporting Life to issue a challenge to Jem Smith, the English heavyweight boxing champion. When rumour had arrived in America earlier in the year that Wannop was keen to take on Smith, Wannop was mocked in the press. They declared him… Read More Jack Wannop wants a go with Jem Smith
I am currently working on two posts about Jack Wannop’s 1888-1889 boxing and wrestling tour of America and how it was reported before, during and afterward by the US and UK press. There are so many dramatic and absurd stories from his trip to share. While I’m finishing those articles off, here is a brief… Read More The Prince and The Prize-Fighters
Grappling With History 