Feasts of Blood: The Forgotten History of Welsh Prize Fighting

Prize fighting in the nineteenth century was a major health risk, frequently fatal and as a matter of course causing disfigured faces, battered bodies and crippled hands.  Considered illegal, with  everyone involved – even spectators - liable to punishment in the courts, it nevertheless thrived clandestinely, attracting crowds in their thousands and laying strong claim to be considered Wales' first national mass spectator sport.

Wales' earliest remembered ring heroes date from the early twentieth century, when men such as Jimmy Wilde, Percy Jones, Freddie Welsh and 'Peerless' Jim Driscoll ruled the world.   Warriors  who went before them were just as famous in their own era yet had been forgotten - until now!  Almost one thousand Welsh fighters are identified in this ground-breaking study, along with fight records for most of them.

Follow the careers of the leading men, examine the sport's rollercoaster journey through the century, how it divided and continues to divide, opinion – even prime ministers were in opposite corners - the sickening injuries, and the money to be made. Read how the sport's uncertain legal status governed most aspects of the prize ring, the action taken to try to stop it, the punishment meted out, and the subterfuge engaged in by the participants. Read about female prize fighters, fairground boxing booths, the phenomenon of mountain fighters and how modern professional boxing evolved from it.

Read about their colourful lives outside the ring, where violence with pugilists regularly involved in drunken attacks on anybody who crossed their path – men, women, police – amassing extensive criminal records in the process.  dodging bullets in the USA, heroics in wars in South Africa and France, breaking out of gaol, and their careers on stage in Shakespearean plays and in French nightclubs.

'I trusted John Francis. If he'd heard that, [then] something was up. There have been a few instances where I've heard about a fight or something first through him'. - Enzo Calzaghe, the trainer and father of undefeated world champion Joe Calzaghe.