Tent Boxing

When Wayne McLennan was growing up in a sleepy Australian mining town in the 1950s, the most exciting event of the year was the arrival of Jimmy Sharman's boxing tent. Boxers would stand on a raised platform and challenge the local men and boys to fight. Aside from providing entertainment, these events challenged preconceptions about Aboriginals, who made up the bulk of Sharman's fighters. Decades later, McLennan returned to Australia to find that a few tents were still in operation in the remote, northern part of the country. This is McLennan's thrilling memoir of joining with one of the tents and traveling with the group as a driver, referee, and occasional fighter. In the process of finding out what makes a man fight for money, McLennan learned even more about Australia's troubled cultural past and the current mood of social relations and his fellow countrymen.