What do you think?
Rate this book
Frank: Fighting Back
At the age of eleven, Frank Bruno was sent to reform school. At thirty-three, he was crowned undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. At forty-one, he was committed to Goodmayes Psychiatric Hospital. Now, for the first time, Frank Bruno tells his real story, showing how how mental illness can swat down the strongest man or woman, and how recovery is possible with friends and family. Frank Bruno is a man who has been right to the top and right to the very bottom. He is a great athlete and a national treasure. Painfully honest, moving, at times shocking, this is the book no one should be without.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2005
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 3, 2014
Frank Bruno is one of those fighters who is often over looked and under appreciated. He fought the best in the game and fell short only when he faced the very top of the list in his era. Despite that the big Briton has a special place in history and is English boxing royalty.
This is a frank book which covers most of the aspects one would expect from a biography. It is an honest and sincere piece which at times seems to be more about Bruno coming to terms with his own faults and failings as much as it is about him sharing experiences. At times the book seems to reach for some closure in its telling of aspects of Bruno's life.
I enjoyed this book and it was a treat to learn about Bruno, a fighter who I have a soft spot for. Despite getting through this book quickly and extracting what I could about his fights, I could not help to think that perhaps this was a book written as some therapeutic exercise in order to help Frank with his illness.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys boxing or biographies. The gloves do come of in this one and the blows are both hard at times but told as softly as Frank Bruno speaks.
74 %
This is a frank book which covers most of the aspects one would expect from a biography. It is an honest and sincere piece which at times seems to be more about Bruno coming to terms with his own faults and failings as much as it is about him sharing experiences. At times the book seems to reach for some closure in its telling of aspects of Bruno's life.
I enjoyed this book and it was a treat to learn about Bruno, a fighter who I have a soft spot for. Despite getting through this book quickly and extracting what I could about his fights, I could not help to think that perhaps this was a book written as some therapeutic exercise in order to help Frank with his illness.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys boxing or biographies. The gloves do come of in this one and the blows are both hard at times but told as softly as Frank Bruno speaks.
74 %
January 31, 2023
Frank... Fighting Back
Painfully honest, moving, at times shocking, this is the book no one should be without. The story of fighting back, from his discovery of having a bipolar disorder, a boxing career coming to an end, a marriage breakup and spending time in Goodmayes to recover from his mental illness.
At the age of eleven, Frank Bruno was sent to reform school. At thirty-three, he was crowned undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. At forty-one, he was committed to Goodmayes Psychiatric Hospital. Now, for the first time, Frank Bruno tells his real story: how the tearaway kid became one of Britain's best-loved sports stars; how he was written off, but came back to win the world championship - at the fourth attempt; his descent into mental illness; and his painful journey back to health. This is a story that Frank has to tell - it is part biography, part therapy. He wants to show how mental illness can swat down the strongest man or woman. He wants people to know what he went through, and how, with the help of his family, he's now recovering. Frank Bruno is a man who has been right to the top and right to the very bottom. He is a great athlete and a national treasure. Everyone knows him. At least, everyone thinks they do. Because, the story he reveals here will make you change your mind.
Powerful and absorbing, honest and open. Some truths about his boxing, his drugs problems, his marriage, his fights, his heart breaking losses, to his greatest moment ever winning the World Title in 1995 beating Oliver Mc Call. So many ups and downs.
Now does so much charity work, started the Frank Bruno Foundation, travels the world doing guest appearances, adverts.
Great book four stars
Painfully honest, moving, at times shocking, this is the book no one should be without. The story of fighting back, from his discovery of having a bipolar disorder, a boxing career coming to an end, a marriage breakup and spending time in Goodmayes to recover from his mental illness.
At the age of eleven, Frank Bruno was sent to reform school. At thirty-three, he was crowned undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. At forty-one, he was committed to Goodmayes Psychiatric Hospital. Now, for the first time, Frank Bruno tells his real story: how the tearaway kid became one of Britain's best-loved sports stars; how he was written off, but came back to win the world championship - at the fourth attempt; his descent into mental illness; and his painful journey back to health. This is a story that Frank has to tell - it is part biography, part therapy. He wants to show how mental illness can swat down the strongest man or woman. He wants people to know what he went through, and how, with the help of his family, he's now recovering. Frank Bruno is a man who has been right to the top and right to the very bottom. He is a great athlete and a national treasure. Everyone knows him. At least, everyone thinks they do. Because, the story he reveals here will make you change your mind.
Powerful and absorbing, honest and open. Some truths about his boxing, his drugs problems, his marriage, his fights, his heart breaking losses, to his greatest moment ever winning the World Title in 1995 beating Oliver Mc Call. So many ups and downs.
Now does so much charity work, started the Frank Bruno Foundation, travels the world doing guest appearances, adverts.
Great book four stars
May 27, 2020
I gave this book 4 stars because it was interesting and I could tell that Bruno had put a lot of thought into writing this book and this almost isn't an autobiography it's like something similar to a Bible where it teaches you life lessons on what you do right and what to do wrong.
The best thing I learnt about boxing was that Consistency is the best trainer. By this I mean go to the gym everyday, work for an hour or two, come home take a nap, go running for an hour, come back and sleep. The next day, go to the gym work for an hour or two hours come home take a nap go running for an hour and come back and sleep and do that over and over again each day; that's consistency.
As a boxer Bruno’s best punch was actually not a single punch but a combination that he used a lot: double jab straight right and one two left hook. The uppercut was actually his favourite punch I just realised.
We met Bruno at a wedding in London once but I was also very young and didn't actually Appreciate how big it was to actually meet someone like him. There is a picture of me and my little brother with him.
The best thing I learnt about boxing was that Consistency is the best trainer. By this I mean go to the gym everyday, work for an hour or two, come home take a nap, go running for an hour, come back and sleep. The next day, go to the gym work for an hour or two hours come home take a nap go running for an hour and come back and sleep and do that over and over again each day; that's consistency.
As a boxer Bruno’s best punch was actually not a single punch but a combination that he used a lot: double jab straight right and one two left hook. The uppercut was actually his favourite punch I just realised.
We met Bruno at a wedding in London once but I was also very young and didn't actually Appreciate how big it was to actually meet someone like him. There is a picture of me and my little brother with him.
July 16, 2021
Easy read. Nice guy. Good he's on top of his illness.
June 17, 2017
Broo-no, Broo-no! People of a certain age will remember that chant, probably even shouted it at the television on more than one occasion. Frank Bruno is an icon of British sport – well-known and adored by millions around the globe. Even the American audience chanted his name on home turf against one of their own (Mike Tyson). This is the story of “Big Frank” in his words.
Our story begins not with Frank Bruno reminiscing his childhood but by diving into the issues that most people will have wanted to pick it up in the first place – his mental illness. Bruno was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and has struggled with bi-polar disorder in the years since his retirement, not I hasten to add, as a result of his boxing career. This marked a low point for Bruno following a hard-fought title which he lost six months later.
As it is an autobiography, we do expect to read about how he got into the game, his family life and upbringing. But this is pretty unremarkable, a fact that Bruno recognises. He got into scrapes with the law and was sent to a school for boys with behavioural problems. It was there that he learnt to box and the self-discipline that went with it. He didn’t have an easy life, but it wasn’t particularly tough either. But boxing seemed to give this energetic young man the outlet for his aggression.
He chronicles his life going up the ranks and even sheds new light on some of his professional relationships with some of the biggest people in the game. He seemed to distrust Lennox Lewis but had (surprisingly) more kind words to say about Mike Tyson than most people seem to have done at the time. When he discusses Tyson, you get the impression that Bruno feels that most people just didn’t get him. He bites his tongue about Don King and curses himself for some of his silly mistakes inside and outside the ring.
This is largely a laid-back and easy holiday type read, and that would have been the case had a shadow not been cast over the volume. A title like Fighting Back suggests that it contains more than mere anecdotes and reminiscing over his brief stint as World Champion which he took on a thrilling night against Oliver McCall.
Towards the end of the book, Bruno returns to his struggles with mental illness. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and sectioned in the months and years following his retirement. Bruno’s spiral into the depths of dispair is as harrowing as it is hopeful. His frank, honest and open approach to cocaine use and mental health should inspire others to be open about there. After all, if it can afflict Frank Bruno then it can get to anyone. I would have preferred to read some of the facts to counter the nastiness and bullshit published by the media, particularly with The S*n’s headline”Bonkers Bruno Locked Up”. But he barely touches on that.
If you want to know the real Frank Bruno, this is the book to do it. It’s a remarkably quick read and you may learn a bit more about this national treasure you never knew before.
Our story begins not with Frank Bruno reminiscing his childhood but by diving into the issues that most people will have wanted to pick it up in the first place – his mental illness. Bruno was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and has struggled with bi-polar disorder in the years since his retirement, not I hasten to add, as a result of his boxing career. This marked a low point for Bruno following a hard-fought title which he lost six months later.
As it is an autobiography, we do expect to read about how he got into the game, his family life and upbringing. But this is pretty unremarkable, a fact that Bruno recognises. He got into scrapes with the law and was sent to a school for boys with behavioural problems. It was there that he learnt to box and the self-discipline that went with it. He didn’t have an easy life, but it wasn’t particularly tough either. But boxing seemed to give this energetic young man the outlet for his aggression.
He chronicles his life going up the ranks and even sheds new light on some of his professional relationships with some of the biggest people in the game. He seemed to distrust Lennox Lewis but had (surprisingly) more kind words to say about Mike Tyson than most people seem to have done at the time. When he discusses Tyson, you get the impression that Bruno feels that most people just didn’t get him. He bites his tongue about Don King and curses himself for some of his silly mistakes inside and outside the ring.
This is largely a laid-back and easy holiday type read, and that would have been the case had a shadow not been cast over the volume. A title like Fighting Back suggests that it contains more than mere anecdotes and reminiscing over his brief stint as World Champion which he took on a thrilling night against Oliver McCall.
Towards the end of the book, Bruno returns to his struggles with mental illness. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and sectioned in the months and years following his retirement. Bruno’s spiral into the depths of dispair is as harrowing as it is hopeful. His frank, honest and open approach to cocaine use and mental health should inspire others to be open about there. After all, if it can afflict Frank Bruno then it can get to anyone. I would have preferred to read some of the facts to counter the nastiness and bullshit published by the media, particularly with The S*n’s headline”Bonkers Bruno Locked Up”. But he barely touches on that.
If you want to know the real Frank Bruno, this is the book to do it. It’s a remarkably quick read and you may learn a bit more about this national treasure you never knew before.
March 23, 2026
I chose this book because although I knew Frank Bruno was a boxer I thought it was going to focus more on his mental health story and it generally was only covered in the beginning and end chapters. That said, it was still interesting to get an insiders take on his career and the battles he fought to get to the top of his game and become Heavyweight Champion of the World!! Lots of boxing drama and how that existed alongside raising a family too.
September 14, 2015
As a teen in the 90s Bruno was a legend to any sporting kid. He was defined by his 2 defeats by Tyson but what an incredible impression he left on all of us. This was another brilliant little biography on another heavyweight you had to admire for the effort he put into his physique and his training. The amount of training and exercise he did was impressive. He lacked movement (perhaps due to all that muscle on him) but what a heart. The book takes you through his troubled youth (nothing like Tysons) and the boarding school he was sent to which helped him straighten out in Sussex, his rise to fame and the wins he began to accumulate. Somewhere something went a little wrong and he started to develop this bipolar disorder which again only recently he was in the news about (Sept 15). I wish the guy the best … an absolute legend in any Englishman’s eyes. An excellent insightful book with some great training tips if, like me, you want to learn about the art of boxing.
April 11, 2017
LOVE Frank Bruno. Attending school in the borough of Wandsworth, his South London patch, at the time, I don't think anything has raised as much screaming excitement in me throughout my life as the moment he momentarily had the unbeaten, in his prime, Tyson wobbly.
A complex and modest individual, was looking forward to really hearing his voice in this book.
An absolute physical colossus, in the days when all the greatest athletes were boxers. To see clips now and think this was a heavyweight seen as having little movement, mindblowing compared to today's stiff operators.
Sometimes a bit sad such a great story has to lay so much emphasis on his mental illness, so much more to the man than that. Loved the escapades in Colombia, hearing his side of all the iconic moments. The right mix of personal details, his family, his childhood, the big fights, his troubles, it feels like the full story, or as much as this true modest gent wants to provide us.
A complex and modest individual, was looking forward to really hearing his voice in this book.
An absolute physical colossus, in the days when all the greatest athletes were boxers. To see clips now and think this was a heavyweight seen as having little movement, mindblowing compared to today's stiff operators.
Sometimes a bit sad such a great story has to lay so much emphasis on his mental illness, so much more to the man than that. Loved the escapades in Colombia, hearing his side of all the iconic moments. The right mix of personal details, his family, his childhood, the big fights, his troubles, it feels like the full story, or as much as this true modest gent wants to provide us.
May 12, 2013
I found this book surprisingly interesting although it is a boxing-story book. It was quite sad to see that Frank Bruno had to end his career due to a Bipolar disorder. It was a very in depth auto-biography as i felt as i was in the story that he wrote. It was amazing to imagine that he was offered a role to act in the Sylvester Stallone movie 'Rocky Balboa'. I personally enjoyed this book despite not being a fan of the boxing sport. I recommend this book to everyone, even kids in Primary school.
July 30, 2011
Amazing insight into the way mental illness can affect anyone. Great for anyone who has suffered or suffering from a mental illness, great motivational tool for them. It can be controlled and overcome. Highly recommended.
September 25, 2014
A fast paced interesting read was sad in places as Frank Bruno describes well his battles with Bipolar. Frank Bruno is and will always be one of my favourite childhood heroes. The guy is a genuine undisputed legend.
November 13, 2012
A fantastic insight into his mental health issues, this is the man stripped bare. I would have liked a longer book as I think I devoured this book within 2 nights but I did enjoy reading this :)
September 19, 2016
I am not a boxing fan but read this whilst on holiday. Whilst I found it interesting, I felt that it was full of contradiction and so did not really feel I learned about the real Frank Bruno.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews