King Of The Gypsies: Memoirs of the Undefeated Bareknuckle Champion of Great Britain and Ireland

Product Information

The story of the travelers is one that few know firsthand, and I'd wager that secondhand accounts (like the Guy Ritchie movie "Snatch") don't even really begin to scratch the surface on a way of life in which fighting is critical, but no more important than any number of interesting folkways, beliefs, and traditions revealed throughout the course of this book.

It does paint their world as a bit Mad Max and even too crazy for Bartley himself in the later years. Very good, i was half expecting this book to have been written by some thick necked half wit that is so common in the genre, but this was not the case. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. His extraordinary memoir also contains many rare photographs and unveils the formidable new breed of fighting travellers. Gorman explains a great deal about the culture of his folk, the "travelling men," and the differences between types of Gypsies (for example: some people consdier Gypsy an epithet and Romany the proper word, but the Romany are only one type of traveller, and he uses the words "traveller" and "Gypsy" interchangeably).It also seems much more earnest as much as a memoir about brutal street brawls and prizefighting goes anyway. That said it does no favours for the Gypsy communities, it tells it like it is, they wonder why they are outcasts its all here. There are shootings, riots, beatings, stabbings, chases by coach and car, every manner of threat, vendettas and blood feuds, and brushes with the law and the mob. Gorman's autobiography King of the Gypsies, written with the help of Peter Walsh, was completed just before Gorman's death. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).

They put an oxygen mask on me and tried to force the dislocated shoulder back in its socket, but couldn't. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins.The same goes for those seeking revenge for the slightest infraction or a grudge held on someone else's behalf. Definitely worth a read and don't think that Bartley was trying to bring glamour to violence, much the opposite, he gives a true account of its horrors. The 1999 comedy drama A Room for Romeo Brass featuring Paddy Considine who played the part of Morrell based his accent on Gorman's. Bartley Gorman's story is rich in images from a world hidden all around us, images which challenged the way I see things.

For twenty years, legendary hard man Bartley Gorman reigned supreme in the most brutal of all pursuits: illegal bareknuckle prize fighting. All in all this was an excellent book on a culture that has survived, in some way or another, for over a thousand years and shows every sign of surviving for a thousand more. He fought for pride, money, and sometimes because when two men have high testosterone and high blood-alcohol content, that's what they do. It would be trite coming from almost anyone else, but like a bare-fisted version of Muhammad Ali, Bartley Gorman has a way of taking what should sound like a nursery rhyme and making proper poetry out of it. A great read I could not put down, a man of principle and values little seen in today society, holding a title hard fought and hard to keep were the whole world comes looking for you.I originally picked it up after the Tyson Fury fight with Wilder (3), its easy to see now but Wilder never stood a chance, he could have fought Fury 20 times and would have lost every time. Gorman claimed to remain unbeaten until his retirement in 1992, with his last fight a draw with Graeme O'Laughlan (Kennedy). loved it, digging deep into the underworld of bare knuckle boxing, bringing to life characters by the narrators voice and actions!

Please try again later as the restrictions may be lifted, or contact your service provider if the issue persists. He challenged infamous London hard men Lenny McLean and Roy Shaw - neither accepted - and beat all comers in brutal contests up and down the country. Hard to reconcile the love of Christ and the immature drunkenness and cowardly violence the book portrays as dominant among modern travellers. In another, he is challenged at his beloved brother Sam's funeral and must fight in his funeral suit with tears still in his eyes, against a man wearing a huge ring that cuts his face to ribbons. Fiercely proud of the tradition he came from whilst ultimately acknowledging that it wouldn't necessarily be the life that one would choose.BKB among the Travelers, Romany, Tinkers and Gypsies is a grim, savage and serious business whose origins go back to the Middle Ages, and is documented in all of its gory detail in this compulsively readable story about one man's quest to be the most feared fighter in his world, and the world at large.