Hi buddy... yes all is going quite well thanks. I have had some further contact with Terry Fox and sent me this message.
Hi Rob,
Jackie Turpin and I are extremely grateful to you for your kind offer of posting info about our book on your web site. Jackie says a big hello to any of his old mates who are still out there.
As a sample of what the book is like, I am probably best quoting the back cover:
Now in his 80th year, “Battling” Jack Turpin is the last surviving member of his generation of Britain’s best-known and loved boxing family.
Jack’s father, Lionel Turpin, came from British Guiana to volunteer for the British Army during the Great War. He was wounded on the battlefields of France and invalided to Warwick, the first black man to settle in the area. Lionel married a local girl but his early death left her struggling to raise their three sons and two daughters in pre-Welfare State England.
As young men, the excitement and gladiatorial glamour of the ring lured Jack and his brothers into professional boxing. From a home-made, backstreet gymnasium, they punched their way into the record books and into the hearts of the British people.
Battling Jack is a wonderfully narrated account of the life and times of a remarkable man who was once Britain’s busiest featherweight. It is also the history of the beginnings of a black presence in British boxing. Turpin offers us a ringside seat at heroic battles and comic encounters. He takes us behind the scenes of a scandal that rocked the sporting world and into his confidence about the mystery that surrounds his younger brother’s death.
‘The name Randy Turpin stands alongside other modern all-time greats like Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Max Schemling, Sugar Ray Robinson and Marvin Hagler. In 2000, he was listed with Britain’s Millennium Sporting Legends.
‘Dick’s bit of history, being the first British black man to win a Lonsdale Belt, will stand for ever.
‘As for “Battling” Jack, I was what you’d call a club fighter. I was the main event on most shows round here; I topped the bill at Liverpool Stadium three or four times; I fought twice in America – there’s not many British boxers who could say that, even British champions – and I won both times.’
Rob, I’m a poet, really, not a boxing writer – not that boxing is without poetry, far from it. Jack and I met by coincidence, as the book explains, but I felt that I had a duty to tell his story. This is the first time the Turpin story has been told from the inside.
Thanks again for your support and encouragement. I will attach an image of the front cover of Battling Jack. The book can be ordered from any bookshop such as WH Smiths, Waterstones, etc., or from internet sites such as
http://www.amazonbooks.co.uk. It is a large paperback and costs 9.99 pounds from most bookshops or at a discount off the internet.
With very best wishes,
Terry
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He also tells me that Jack is delighted with the interest shown and wishes to thank people. They are both keen to hear from people as to what they think of the book and I have said that i will pass on the comments made.
Aside from what people have written here i would ask you spend some time writting some other comments up so that we can send them to him please.What better time of the year to pass on our good wishes to a man of his age and character.
for my part, on behalf of the Merseyside and Wirral ex boxers, a page has been created on our web site for the book.We will also be doing a feature in a future edition of our newsletter.
many thanks guys
