© Provided by The GuardianPhotograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
Mick Kitson's second novel, following 2018's Sal, is practically the definition of a ripping yarn: a plucky young "Romi" girl, Annie, is bought by the Tipton Slasher, a bareknuckle boxer, with the winnings from his final fight. He raises her like a daughter and she follows his footsteps into the ring. The sight of a woman fighting "fisty" in Victorian England draws eager crowds and brings our heroine fame, fortune and an Adonis-like prizefighter of a husband. But these illegal fights lead Annie into peril, too, as she encounters vicious opponents, enraged lawmakers and nasty toffs who want her for their private entertainment.
© Photograph: Sophia Evans/The ObserverMick Kitson: his 'imagination is allowed to roam and play'.
Kitson drew on his family's myths - Annie and the Slasher are based on his ancestors - although he cheerfully admits the stories his grandmother told about them were notoriously unreliable. No matter: this is historical fiction rich in fun rather than meticulous fact, Kitson's imagination allowed to roam and play.
He has a fine time with Annie and the Slasher - warm, memorable creations who come punching off the page
He has a fine time with Annie and the Slasher - warm, memorable creations who come punching off the page. Describing Annie, it's hard not to fall back on cliched phrases for modern female protagonists - a "strong woman", a "feisty heroine" - but Kitson crafts her voice with enough verve so that she doesn't feel like a wishful historical rewrite.
Featherweight transports the reader to the tough, rapidly industrialising world of the 19th-century Black Country, with its old canals and new railways, the soot of the forges and strikes at the nail factories, via lushly detailed, rhythmical descriptions. "The furnace . made the sky orange all night and fat sparks danced up in the steam and curled and fell like they was the shed leaves of a white-hot tree."
Kitson's black-and-white, heroes-and-villains plotting is predictable, although Featherweight remains a gleeful, page-flipping read. Fights are breathlessly paced, if not rendered so grittily as to put off the queasier readers out there. It all adds up to a rollicking tale, one you'll be glad to take a ringside seat for.
. Featherweight by Mick Kitson is published by Canongate (£14.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply