WHEN a boxer turns preacher, the temptation is to resort to headlines such as "Bible basher", but the Reverend Brian Branche deserves much more than that. He talks to Frank Elson about his life and new book

THE Reverend Brian Branche is a thinker. He has studied Zen and other philosophies - ending up with Christianity - and has thought about his path through life.

Rev Branche was also a boxer who, after many years as a priest, still enjoys the sport.

The 67-year-old retired priest has now written a book: "Seconds Out" which tells the story of a remarkable life and shows some of the thought processes that have helped shape his existence.

As the book explains, Rev Branche"s move towards Christianity was not a simple one and he was often faced with prejudice.

His best friend, a drinking partner and workmate when both worked for the General Post Office, refused to speak to Brian when he announced that he was going to theological college. Also, at his first interview with a Bishop to determine if he could go to the college, Brian was offered a sherry and politely asked if he had been to Oxford or Cambridge.

The story of how this Indian-born ex-boxer and merchant seaman made the transition from a secondary-modern education to vicar is both uplifting and thought-provoking.

Skimming over his early life, India, arrival in Britain, boxing, the RAF, the Merchant Navy and marriage which, to Brian Branche seems only of significance where dreams are concerned.

The book, written after Brian had a dream, tells the story of college and his ministry.

"I had a dream," Rev Branche told me in his Little Lever home. "I heard the words "seconds out, third and last round, write your book" so I got up immediately and started to write. A fortnight later it was finished.

"People had suggested I should write a book for a long time, but I had never bothered until that dream."

Dreams have played a large part in Mr Branche"s life: "When I was 13 I dreamt that I was a slave at the crucifixion and I was ordered to get Jesus" body down from the cross.

"As I did so Christ"s head fell into my lap and I fell in love - with compassion, sorrow, deep emotions in technicolor."

Despite this dream, Mr Branche found himself moving further and further away from his Irish Catholic upbringing. It was many years before he thought of the church as a job.

Born in India and brought up for his first few years under the British Raj, he came to Britain with his mother when she broke up with his father at the time of India"s independence.

In India he was sent away to boarding school: "I was bullied there for a year. Then I began to learn how to box and was able to fight back. The bullying stopped.

"At school in Brighton, when we first came to this country I was again picked on. I fought the bully and gave him a good hiding."

After school came the RAF and a string of boxing awards before he left and joined the Merchant Navy as an engineer, then, much later, he became a Post Office engineer.

"At one point I began to go to Brighton library and look up books on philosophy and theology, things like Confuscious, Islam, Zen...

"I tried meditation through Zen and had another strange experience when I "saw" myself from above."

Obviously there was something in Brian"s life that was different from the norm, but he did not know what it was.

He married, had two children and was working for the Post Office when he began to work among what he calls "the disadvantaged" on Brighton seafront - drug addicts, alcoholics, the homeless.

"They, and friends started telling me I should be a priest, because I acted like one. One day I decided that they must be right!" he laughed.

"Of course it wasn"t that simple, because I was both a lapsed Catholic and a married man so I had to introduce myself to the Church of England."

Today, although retired, Mr Branche still works as a locum at St Michael"s church, Great Lever and helps out at St Matthew"s, Little Lever.

He is also the honorary chaplain to the Manchester Ex-Boxers" Association.

"I don"t think of boxing as a violent sport," he said. "I think of it as akin to sword-fencing - you have to score points by skill.

"I never went out of my way to knock someone down but I learned a great deal from the skills and training involved in the sport and I believe that others can as well."

Always aiming to do God"s work - and, it appears, succeeding - Brian Branche has never stopped searching and questioning the true meaning of life.

What lifts his story are the little quirks that show Brian to be a real man: spiritual, yes, but not so unworldly. He castigates himself for, on one cold snowy day in London, cursing when he found the bus did not run on a Sunday, yet this just helps to make him a real person.

A real person, moreover, who has a strong faith. And that is the real story of "Seconds Out".

l "Seconds Out" by Reverend Brian Branche, is published by Athena Press at £5.99 (paperback)