FACED with a slow decline into middle age, laboratory assistant Marion Dunn from near Settle, decided to grab the bull by the horns and get fit.

She had been a keen potholer and cyclist for several years, but any fitness built up as a result of investigating the caves of North Yorkshire as a member of the Clapham based Cave Rescue Organisation had gone by her middle 30s.

“I was staring at middle age spread like staring down the barrel of a gun, “she told BBC 4 Woman’s Hour recently. “I was trapped in gentle terminal decline, it was all about use it or lose it.”

She described how she decided to search around for a cheap gym to suit her budget in her area, went along and was surprised to find it was a traditional boxing club with linoleum floors, four boxing bags and four men.

But she decided to give it a go and despite all expectations, enjoyed it, and more than that, was gripped from the very start.

Now, the 56 year old, who is still boxing and attending her club twice a week, is amazed at the success of her book, The Boxing Diaries: How I Got Hooked.

Not only has she been on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour, when he was described by presenter Jane Garvey as one of the ‘most positive people she had ever met’, but she has also been on BBC Breakfast and been featured in a Sunday newspaper.

Her boxing coach told her watching her on breakfast television had brought tears to his eyes, and her club colleagues formed a semi-circle of welcome at her first training session after her television appearance.

Marion, now a full time laboratory assistant at Lancaster University, kept a boxing diary when she first started training, and it slowly ‘morphed’ into a book.

She decided to add some anecdotes - such as her thoughts on reality television - “First Dates, a morbidly compelling TV reality television programme for the too beautiful, too prissy, too vacant and too deluded’, on Morrisey’s autobiography , and attending a secondary school reunion, and sent the resulting 90,000 words off to a number of publishers.

Eventually, Ruth Killick of publishers Saraband, decided it was for her. “She rang me, said she really liked it, and couldn’t put it down,” said Marion, adding it was explained that the book would either be a flop, or a great hit.

The Boxing Diaries is not just a story of hard graft. It’s a revealing account of life in the amateur boxing gym: its idiosyncratic inhabitants, non-judgmental spirit, dedicated coaches and respect for all comers, irrespective of age or gender – provided their commitment to training is total.

Marion says she has never experienced any sexism from trainers or her fellow boxers, nor has she seen sexism directed to the many other younger women who come and go to the gyms she belongs too.

“There is absolutely no sexism, everyone is made to feel very welcome, without exception,” she says, adding that anyone can go to a boxing gym, and all they need is to be prepared to work very hard.

She points out that her experience of boxing is at the very lowest level of the amateur sport, and that although she has done sparring in the ring, under the ever watchful eye of very experienced trainers, its not for everyone, and plenty of people just attend for the boxing training sessions.

Indeed, her accounts of learning to skip, and punching a bag, with the sweat dripping down her arms from underneath her gloves, shows just how hard it is.

Marion describes boxing as a form of dancing, and says it is not all about hurting your opponent - although she does suffer the occasional black eye .

“It’s not about about pulverising your opponent, but to outwit them,” she says. “Boxing does have a bit of an edge to it, but at the level I do, which is very much at the lower end of the amateur level and relatively safe with supervision and a fully trained coach.”

“It is akin to dancing, about learning moves and throwing your weight about in a good way.”

Aged 56, she says she has no intention of packing the boxing in, as long as her physiotherapist is happy, and although she has good fitness and flexibility, it is the speed she is lacking.

Judging by the coverage the Boxing Diaries has already had, it seems the book could very well be on its way to being a possible surprise best-seller.

The Boxing Diaries, priced £9.99 is available now online from Amazon, and also at The Stripey Badger bookshop, The Square, Grassington.