Selected Product:
| Pretty Boy
Paperback
Edition: New edition
Author: Roy Shaw
Publisher: John Blake Publishing Ltd
Release Date: August 2003
ISBN-10: 1857825519
ISBN-13: 9781857825510
List Price: £7.99
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
a very good autobiography
| Customer Rating:  | I read this book, on recommendation, after being hugely disappointed by the over-hyped (in my opinion) 'the guv'nor'. I found this book to be pretty much everything the guv'nor wasnt. The book, as you probably know, explores the life and times of self proclaimed hard man roy 'pretty boy' shaw.
shaw is very much the opposite of lenny mclean - mclean comes across as brash, arrogant and self indulgent, whereas shaw is mennacing but quieter. however, his propensity for violence is just as great as mcleans. he doesnt try to justify it any real way, what you see is what you get. he explores his upbringing, his boxing career and his life of crime. shaw is clearly a madman and a very tough one at that. His career boasts however are far less indulgent than mcleans (who claims to have got into a fight with 18 men at once and won!) and consequently are far more believable.
he tuned lenny in their first meeting, got KOd in the second (which he blames in dodgy gingseng) and claims lenny refused to give him a rematch (althopug vidoe evidence would suggest that this is untrue. they met 3 times and roy got kod twice). like lenny roy blames the loss on factors beyond his control, although it is fair to say that roy was much lighter and older than lenny.
all in all a good book - streets ahead of the guv'nor, primarily because it was believable |
Gripping Biography of a Very Hard Man Indeed
| Customer Rating: | Pretty Boy is the biography of infamous London villain and unlicensed fighter Roy Shaw. It's a frank and unapologetic account of years spent dishing out brutal beatings on the streets, in the army, in prison and in the ring. As Shaws reputation as a hard man grew he soon became involved in the criminal underworld and spent many years behind bars during his youth. His determination to never admit defeat to the authorities saw him shipped from high security prisons to mental hospitals and eventually the deepest darkest dungeons of Broadmoor. He was forced to undergo some pretty shocking treatments during his time there and it's quite something that he emerged alive. When he finally did he made a big name for himself as a bare knuckle fighter beating some of the hardest men in the world with astonishing ferocity.
I got the impression when reading Pretty Boy that Shaw is always honest and doesn't tell tall tales or embelish the truth. He admits when he was defeated by a better fighter which is something that can't be said for Lenny McLean in his book 'The Guv'nor'. Whilst undoubtedly a hard man himself, he glosses over the fight in which Roy beat him and greatly goes into detail when he beat Roy in the return. He also claims no-one else ever beat him but in actual fact he was beaten several times in the ring. Shaw doesn't gloss over anything and tells some shocking tales of stabbings, cutting a grasses throat and throwing a man off a second storey balcony. Shaw was undoubtedly a violent and remorseless man but his story is fascinating for those of us who know nothing of the world men like Roy live.
Like this? Try: The Guv'nor by Lenny McLean |
Pretty Boy
| Customer Rating: | What can be said about the man that could do him justice...Roy Shaw is a hard b*stard and his story is even harder. No flash (take note Dave Courtney), no hype (Lenny Mclean tall tales), Roy is the man other hard men want to be, he is the Ron Jeremy of violence and you cannot help but love his frankness and no razzle-dazzle story telling.
This is a solid read that encourages you to read more from this genre and more about Roy.
The over publicised rivalry between Lenny and Roy will go down in the history books for decades to come but you feel that Roy's view on it is far more in touch with reality than Len's. Both were / are very hard men born in the wrong century, I loved this book and you will too. |
The Violence is shocking but I could not wait to hear more
| Customer Rating: | | All my life, living in the East End of London I have heard the two names that have kept me facinated with bare knuckle fighting. "Lenny Mclean and Roy Shaw". My own Father "Arthur Lee" was a profesional boxer way back in the 50's and was one of seven brothers fighting out of Canning Town East London so I have always followed boxing with interest. When Lenny brought out his book I imediately went out and bought it, read it in 4 days and was drunk on wanting to hear more of his life. He died soon after I finished the book. I was always a fan of Lenny Mclean and thought there was no man on earth as tough as the Guvnor. Untill I read about Roy Shaw. The book is excelent and will no doubt signal the start of more books from more wanna be tough guys, but we've had the best two books from the best two fighters, nothing else will come close. I understand there was to be a film of the life of Lenny Mclean but it fell through.. What a great shame if the lives of these two great rivals were never to appear on the big screen. You've got LOCK STOCK! AND SNATCH. WHY NOT PRETTY BOY AND THE GUVNOR? David Lee |
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