AS a young boy, I remember sitting with my grandfather and listening to his tales surrounding some of Britain's legendary boxing greats.

His memories were very much rooted in the thirties, forties and fifties, while my own memories date back to the sixties.

Tommy Farr, the Peerless Jim Driscoll, Jimmy Wilde and Feeddie Welsh, these were the boxing legends that I grew up with.

Now, they have all come to life in the pages of "Wales and its Boxers". an excellent book which is edited by Peter Stead and Gareth Williams.

Ask me to name the Welsh boxer who figured most prominently in my childhood fireside chats and it would be Tommy Farr, The Tonypandy Kid.

My grandfather, like many of his generation, was convinced that Farr had been robbed of victory in the most important fight of his life, against the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, and arguably the greatest boxer ever, Joe Louis.

Certainly news reels shown across Wales weeks after the fight suggested Farr had won, but the boxer himself never made the claim. He accepted he had clearly been defeated by the best man he had ever faced.

The fifties was the decade of Joe Erskine and Dick Richardson, totally different fighters. But both held titles which showed their ranking as world class heavyweights.

Indeed, their presence in a British heavyweight division which also included Henry Cooper and Brian London, making it one of the keenest fought for many years.

As the strength of the heavyweight division faded, there came the emergence of the lightweight brigade, boxers such as Howard Winstone and Johnny Owen, and then came Joe Calzaghe!

Joe is without doubt the best pound for pound boxer in the world today, and he features prominently at the very end of the book.

"Wales and its Boxers" is well worth a read and is obtainable from University of Wales Press,