![]() ![]() Dryer, the same merchant who keeps Dora as his mistress, also holds the reins of Ruth’s career-and in his eyes, both women are assets to be used for his benefit and discarded when they no longer contribute to it.ĭryer takes the same attitude when it comes to his timid wife, Charlotte, the sister of his best friend, Henry, with whom he is engaged in a destructive game of one-upmanship. Frustrated by her narrowly circumscribed life, Charlotte asks Ruth to teach her to box. ![]() Then one day, two bored customers offer to pay to watch Ruth and Dora fight, and Ruth’s natural ease in the ring sets her on a different path.īut while boxing may appear to offer more agency and freedom than the pursuit of a wealthy benefactor, the reality is not so simple. Beautiful Dora is a sure bet to join the mollies upstairs once she hits her teens (or at least double-digits), but plain Ruth-whom her mother describes as being made of the “ugliest parts of 20 daddies”-helps her mother with the chores. ![]() ![]() The year 1800 is approaching in Bristol, and Ruth is growing up with her sister, Dora, in the brothel their mother runs. Fans of authors like Sarah Waters and Michel Faber will thrill to Anna Freeman's debut, The Fair Fight, an exciting historical novel set in the little-known world of women's bare-knuckle boxing. ![]()
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