Jem Mace in Norwich

Back from the in-laws' caravan in Norfolk and back to school this week. It's going well so far. One child was sent home for having her normal asthmatic cough and the other has only been sent out of class in his new school for dicking about, but they are mostly in. There is a sense of normality, and they are happy.

When we were in Norfolk we happened upon, not by accident I grant you, a blue plaque to my 3x great grandfather Jem Mace. He was the First World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, and he's the reason we called the business British Boxers. You can read more about his history in this page here. It was lovely to see his name on the wall and see the streets he would have walked. I felt so proud of him. My mother-in-law was fascinated by his history too and started to look up old newspaper articles about him. She found one where he'd defended a woman on a train. The woman's husband was drunk and hitting her, so Jem asked him to stop. The man was affronted by this and challenged Jem to a fight on the platform. Jem accepted of course and laid him out in one punch. It's a bit Peaky Blinders isn't it (and I'm not condoning violence or vigilantism), but again I was dead proud that he'd defended the woman. It seemed like justice did its thing that day.

Autumn is starting to land now, and we have some new things arriving all the time which we'll be adding to the website over the next few weeks. The code AUTUMN15 gets you 15% off and there are still free face masks on all orders over £30.