DESPITE spending the first 18 months of his life in Tunisia, Charlie Magri is as East-End as jellied eels and Bow bells. The former WBC flyweight champion writes exactly as he talks and, for the most part, that is a good thing.

While Magri does have a habit of reiterating his points, the unpolished tone lends the book an air of authenticity that only adds to the reader’s engagement. This could certainly have done with a more stringent edit, but the subject is humble, funny and relentlessly likeable.

Magri takes us through his housing estate upbringing and admits that his first love – football – actually led him to the ring. Magri played in the same Millwall youth team as future British champ Jimmy Batten, who was a successful amateur at the Arbour Youth club in Stepney and got Charlie into boxing.

Magri went on to win an incredible six ABA titles (two Junior, four Senior), a Euro Senior bronze and represented Great Britain in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

He credits Arbour Youth senior coach, Jimmy Graham, as another father-figure and admits if the amateur game had then been part-funded by the Lottery as it is now, he probably would never have turned pro. As it was, Magri turned over under the tutelage of Terry Lawless.

Charlie won a British title (at flyweight) within three fights and 42 days of his debut, a record that still stands. It’s during this part of the book that Magri reveals his secret to making weight: “The day before a fight, I’d hardly eat anything. Then, just before I went to bed I’d eat a whole lemon. Jimmy Graham told me that it would help you shift water weight out of your body. Lemons are like a diuretic tablet.” Well, that was my ‘something new’ from the book!

Magri went unbeaten for the first four years of his pro career, picking up and twice defending the European title before Mexican journeyman Juan Diaz shockingly knocked Charlie out in six. Magri rebounded with two wins and the morale of the gym was further boosted with the addition of a young, painfully shy heavyweight called Frank Bruno. Charlie says, “Frank walked over to the heavy bag. With his first shot there was this almighty crash. We looked round, and there was an embarrassed-looking Frank Bruno surrounded by all the scaffolding – he’d managed to bring the whole lot crashing down with one punch!”

Unfortunately, disaster struck again for Magri when unheralded American Jose Torres stopped him in nine. Charlie says he was “completely written off by the press” after that and Magri’s dismay at his (mostly negative, he says) treatment from the media is evident throughout the book.

He admits the harsh press coverage really got to him. This does not come across as bitter, surprisingly, but quite sad. Magri came back to outpoint Torres before getting his big chance against WBC champ Eleoncio Mercedes in 1983. Magri won on cuts in the seventh but felt he was getting on top anyway. The account of the fight is superb – gripping and with an infectious sense of elation at Magri’s long sought-after win.

Charlie also reveals a rather unusual helper in the background. “On the night of the fight, Freddie Starr was in my dressing room. He really made me feel relaxed. What a mad sod he was, though!” Magri goes on to reveal why he believes he lost to Frank Cedeno is his first defence, blaming the removal of a blind boil and the tablets he had to take afterwards, for making him groggy. Charlie again rebounded, regaining the European title, before losing his second and final ‘world’ challenge to Thai great Sot Chitalada.

The real story here is that after the fight, promoted by Frank Warren, Charlie claims Lawless completely changed towards him. After Magri was stopped in his final fight against Duke McKenzie, he and Lawless have not spoken. The section where Magri talks poignantly about giving up boxing is particularly moving. “I cried my eyes out. I’d lost my life. I’d lost everything. Without boxing, I didn’t know who I was, or what I wanted to be anymore. Boxing was my purpose, it was the reason I did everything.”

Magri bounced back, of course, and trained fighters for a while, before becoming the manager (and now the owner) of the Queen Victoria pub in Bethnal Green.

Here, Magri has found peace and contentment. After a “messy” divorce, which sadly has changed his relationship with his two children, and his parents’ deaths, Magri has found a new soulmate in Tina, a girl he knew from primary school. I found this a thoroughly enjoyable ride through the ups and downs of Magri’s life. The subject is a great character and that comes across in the narration.

This may not win any prizes for excellence in prose, but I struggled to put it down. That’s enough for me.