From the boxing clubs of 1970s East London to the celebrity haunts of Hollywood the acclaimed actor offers a memoir with “gripping insight into his youth” (Telegraph, UK).

Ray Winstone’s amazing talent for bringing out the humanity of his tough-guy screen characters—a violent offender in Scum, a wife-beater in Nil by Mouth, and a retired robber in Sexy Beast to name just a few—has made him one of the most charismatic actors of his generation. But how do these uncompromising, unforgettable performances square with his off-duty reputation as a salt-of-the-earth, golden-hearted nice guy? The answer, as Winstone himself will tell you, lies in the East End of his youth.

Revisiting the bomb-sites and boozers of his childhood and adolescence, Ray Winstone takes the reader on an unforgettable tour of a cockney heartland which is at once irresistibly mythic and undeniably real. Told with its author’s trademark blend of brutal directness and roguish wit, Young Winstone offers a fascinating insight into the social history of East London, as well as a school of hard knocks coming-of-age story with a powerful emotional punch.

“As much about London as his nascent career. Ray made such an impression in Scum that I still remember his prison number, and he is just as vivid on his formative years.”—Independent on Sunday, Best Books on Film in 2014