Henry Cooper: The Authorised Biography Book

Henry Cooper: the Authorised Biography of Britain's Greatest Boxing Hero seeks to redress and celebrate the central anomaly of Cooper's career, namely that he is best remembered for one punch in a fight he lost. The left hook with which he floored Cassius Clay in 1963 which is still widely regarded as the defining point of his career. Published 39 years after that fight with Clay (later Muhammad Ali) and 31 years after Cooper hung up his gloves for good, Edwards' work is also an exercise in time travel. It visits a London, a sport and a society that seem almost unrecognisable--by turns impossibly gentle and brutal, cynical and naive. Of the brutality, we are spared very little. Try this notably visceral description of the newly-crowned British heavyweight champion's condition after a particularly brutal fight: "The 3 lbs of congealed blood that he had ingested, a giant blutwurst really, also took some time to remove itself: 'I was so swollen up and sore, I couldn't even wear trousers for a week.'" Last year's intelligent, entertaining biography of Stirling Moss proved that Edwards is a sparky, opinionated writer who can produce memorably rich, evocative prose blended with slices of wit, pomposity and bombast. This book, while unmistakably an authorised account, crackles with enthusiasm, not least, one suspects, because Edwards turns up new material throughout. Think you know the story of Clay and 'Enery's 'Ammer? Think again. --Alex HankinRead More