I've belted a few people. In every case I was in the right and it were them that were taken the liberties and I did what John Wayne did, what any sane man would do, punch them right in the f*****g earhole.” Clips from the Paul Sykes: At Large documentary are often shared on social media and go viral, as new viewers join the legions who have lauded him as a cult hero. Read More Related Articles While jailed for violence, Sykes spent his time passing an Open University degree in Physical Sciences and earning the Arthur Koestler prize for prison literature. She said: “I’ve been used to brutality with my husband - perhaps that’s why Paul thinks he’s got to use force because his dad’s always used force.”

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That’s because Bronson wrote in his book, Legends: “A notorious hard man from Yorkshire, a fighting man in every sense.Excellent read very informative of the boxing world, would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys this genre During his prison stints, Sykes met the notorious Charles Bronson, and he left quite the impression. Jamie said he was approached by Sivell and Western Edge after the release of Unfinished Agony earlier in the year. His intellectual abilities were discovered in jail when he began spending time reading books before publishing his own.

Sweet Agony: This Novel Won an Arthur Koestler Literary Award

Having been born in Wakefield in 1946, by 1990 Sykes had spent 21 years in 18 prisons for many violent acts including assaults against prison officers and police officers. But as a professional boxer, the brawler still holds the record for being the British and Commonwealth Heavyweight contender with fewest professional fights. Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 293pp., yellow pictorial laminated wrappers. Crease in upper cover, but a very good copy. Notorious memoir of a violent criminal and, briefly, professional boxer. Sykes was a drunken thug who spent much of his life in prison, but his book is nevertheless the work of a sensitive and intelligent man. Uncommon: COPAC lists just the Bodleian copy; OCLC finds five more in provincial UK libraries. Despite disparate datings (1990, 1991, 1993) this seems to be the sole edition. But Wilson ended up badly hurt in hospital where it took him one month to recover from the bashing. His mum once said in a documentary, Paul Sykes: At Large: “I never had any problems with him as a little boy, he was always a grand lad.

Sykes died at the age of 60 in March 2007 at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield after suffering from pneumonia and liver cirrhosis. You’d be forgiven for thinking Sykes’ upbringing was far from desirable when you consider how he once described being put behind bars. Sharks will have a look at me and think ‘yeah’ but I know how to do them - you punch them right in the f*****g earhole and they swim off.” Death Much traveled in the U.K. Prison system: 25 transfers in 20 years, 21 of 26 years were spent in various British jails