Punching Judy

About the Book

Punching Judy tells the story of a butch teenage girl who becomes a boxer. On release from a detention centre, Judy Smith is advised to contact her former coach, Apeman Harry O'Riordan, but Ape is less than keen, for the recalcitrant Judy has in the past proved to be rather more than he can handle. However, needing the money and still recognising Judy's ring potential, he agrees to give her one last chance.

That Judy is an odd lot Ape accepts, but when he finds that she has stolen not only goods but the woman he loves, he walks away. A crack on the skull, however, received in his night job as a bouncer, leaves him at an impasse: an invalid with no work, no woman and no money. Can he rescue himself from depression and his penchant for the booze? In something like desperation he thinks of Judy. But can he save her from the seedy underbelly of boxing and the life of crime to which she is inevitably drawn?

This revelation of the complex relationship between an aging coach and a female juvenile delinquent takes place in southeast London in the 1950's, a time when butch girls needed to punch their weight or go under.

About the Author

David James was born in London in 1932. He is the author of more than thirty articles and book reviews, and has taught at universities in England, North America, Morocco and The Gulf. Punching Judy is his third published novel. He is at present living in Sutton, Surrey with his wife and two teenage children.