Between the ages of 9 and 11, I wrote a journal that I dreamed of turning into a book. It was about my family and the dynamics I was struggling to survive at such a young age. One day, my mum found it. She blamed me for how negatively I felt about her. That moment of shame killed my dream of becoming a writer.
Still, I never stopped writing. Throughout most of my adult life, I kept journals, quietly capturing my thoughts, memories, experiences from around the world, and the people I met along the way. For a long time, I believed that early experience had taken away my ability to write something meant to be shared. But what I lacked wasn’t the desire; it was a purpose strong enough to bring everything together.
Boxing gave me that purpose. This three-book series documents my first, second, and third years in the sport, combining personal experiences, science, and the lessons I learned from the people who shaped my journey. More than a story about boxing, it is a story about growth, human connection, and how the environments we create can change lives.
Ultimately, I’m doing this because it makes my crazy wild inner child happy 😈.
Book One: The Empty Corner
The Empty Corner is the first book in a three-part series exploring my personal experience of discovering boxing in my forties and the lessons that emerged from those early months. It explores the challenge of finding your feet in an unfamiliar environment, learning a completely new skill, building confidence, and making meaningful connections with people who often become part of the journey without ever realising the impact they have had.
The book follows my first full year learning boxing, from January 2026 to January 2027. During this time, I document my own journey throughout the physical and mental aspects of training, including the challenges of adapting my body and mindset to a demanding sport following a hip replacement. A key focus of this journey is injury prevention and management, drawing on sports science principles and best practices to understand how to train safely, recover effectively, and build long-term resilience. I also explore how to deal with an excessive drive to train, learning to balance discipline with rest, and developing a healthier relationship between mind and body through boxing.
I have always believed that the beginning of any journey deserves the greatest attention. Whether we are starting a new activity, moving to a new town, or building a new relationship, those first interactions quietly shape everything that follows. They influence our confidence, our sense of belonging, and sometimes even whether we decide to continue at all. I hope this book will bring some insight to coaches, particularly those training kids who will shape the future of boxing.
Throughout the book, I reflect on the trainers, boxers, and strangers who unknowingly became my inspiration. Some offered encouragement, others challenged my thinking, and many demonstrated qualities that extended far beyond boxing. Their stories, together with my own experiences, became lessons about resilience, empathy, boundaries, connection, and personal growth that aim to cultivate a lifelong healthy experience for everyone involved.
The Empty Corner is a reflective journey through the culture surrounding boxing gyms, exploring what makes them welcoming, what unintentionally pushes people away, and how small acts of kindness, leadership, and emotional intelligence can transform someone’s experience.
Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and my own observations, the book asks how combat sports can become healthier environments where people develop not only stronger bodies, but also greater self-awareness, emotional resilience, and genuine human connection.
What I’ve already written about so far…
Chapter 1: A shy and painful start
I initially felt very welcome because I was training one-to-one, where I had my coach’s full attention and could learn at my own pace. Very quickly, though, I realised boxing gyms weren’t quite as welcoming as I had first imagined. These early months gave me something far more valuable than boxing skills. I made my first genuine connections, including my first boxing friend, Scott, and began to understand that the people we meet at the very beginning of a journey often shape everything that follows.
Chapter 2: Exposure, recover & detachment
As my confidence inside the gym grew, life outside the gym became far more complicated. Boxing introduced me to difficult lessons, and relationships that forced me to look inward. At the same time, I underwent a total hip replacement, closing one chapter of my life while beginning another. Through surgery, rehabilitation, and emotional setbacks, I learned that healing is not only physical. Sometimes growth comes from learning when to hold on, and sometimes from having the strength to let go.
Chatpter 3: Accountability
My hip replacement gave me something I hadn’t had for years: my dream life back. It was during my recovery period that I confronted my own fears and began stripping away everything that no longer served me. I became more independent, more disciplined, and more accountable because there were no longer injuries holding me back. This transformation wasn’t accidental. It was the result of long periods of reflection while spending time in Ischia, Italy, before returning to Edinburgh and gradually resuming my normal life. By the time I stepped back into the boxing gym, I wasn’t just returning physically stronger. I was returning with a clearer mind, and a renewed sense of purpose.