It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
On The Cobbles

On The Cobbles

Jimmy Stockin: The Life Of A Bare Knuckled Gypsy Warrior

Summary

Everyone is familiar with the gypsy race but few outside their close-knit and ancient community really know what being a gypsy is about -how they live and how they think. This is the story of a gypsy man, Jimmy Stockin, born into a world where fighting is first nature. Whilst football maybe the chosen sport for most British males, bare-knuckle fighting is a passion among gypsies both as participants and spectators. Jimmy was born into fighting family. His father and grand-father before him 'trod the cobbles' and young Jimmy was being put up against other boys on gypsy camps from the age of five. He took on bare knuckle challenges from wherever they came. Before long Jimmy was widely recognised as the champion of the bare-knuckle fighters. On the Cobbles is a rare insight into a community under threat - a community that treasures tradition - and a man who had little choice in becoming a fighter but was nevertheless determined to be the best. Shocking and sad, humourous and brutal, this story opens the door to a different world. The world of a gypsy warrior.

About the authors

Jimmy Stockin

Learn More

Martin King

Peter Osgood played for Chelsea and Southampton, and was also capped four times by England in the early 1970s. He died in 2006.

Martin King is the author of A Boy's Story, The Estate and The South Downs Way, and Martin Knight is the author of the novel Common People. Together they have co-written Hoolifan, The Naughty Nineties and On the Cobbles.
Learn More

Martin Knight

Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more