Young Winstone

<p>Ray Winstone's amazing talent for bringing out the humanity buried inside his often brutal screen characters - violent offender in <i>Scum</i>, wife-beater in <i>Nil by Mouth</i>, retired blagger in <i>Sexy Beast</i> - has made him one of the most charismatic actors of his generation. But how do these uncompromising and often haunting performances square with his off-duty reputation as the ultimate salt-of-the-earth diamond geezer? <br><br> The answer 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, <i>Young Winstone</i> 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.</p>