Undefeated

LoveReading Says

Thrillingly entertaining, and radiant with unexpected floodings of the heart, along with the magic of folks who put their lives on the line for one another, Gillie Basson’s Undefeated is gloriously gratifying. Pugilism has never been so exhilaratingly portrayed, and rarely has a story of 18 th -century grit, corruption, sisterhood and survival been so fulfillingly told.

Often described as an “Amazonian virago”, female fighter Elizabeth resolves to change her life when her husband is hanged for murder: “With Robert gone, I’ve decided to leave the fighting world and try to start afresh. If only a fresh start would present itself. The only thing fresh is the tankard of gin in front of me”.   

Trouble is, Elizabeth simply loves fighting: “I like punching someone in the face. It’s a useful release from everything else. All my life, it seems, all I’ve known is fighting”, so even after finding unfulfilling employment as a seamstress, its lure is hard to resist, not least when 11- year-old pickpocket Halfinch keeps turning up to tell her what a fighter she is, and how she doesn’t belong in a haberdashery, But, in typically Mae-West-quipping style, Elizabeth tries to stick to her guns: “I’m my own woman and my choices are my own — even if they are the wrong ones.”

As things turn out, Elizabeth finds a new trainer and manages to stay off the gin to become Championess of England. Her transformation from a very hard drinking, very hard hitting, straight-talking loner to a still-hard hitting, still-straight-talking woman of huge heart and compassion is absolutely joyous, albeit through a succession of tragic injustices that’ll have you reaching for a big box of tissues. What a knockout of a novel.

Joanne Owen

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