Nigel Benn Read Online Free PDF Page A

would have snuffed out our lives. Not one of us boys was aware of how close to disaster we were and, to this day, Dad swears it was the hand of God that saved us.
    For some inexplicable reason, Dad woke up and was aware of an unusual calm in the house. He felt something was not quite right and lay in his bed for a while, wondering whether he should check the house. After some minutes, he smelt fumes. He sprang out of bed and raced to our room but couldn’t see inside. The smoke had become a heavy fog shrouding everything. Desperately, he felt his way to the bunks and heaved us out of theroom. Assured that there was no fire, he then checked that we were breathing properly. Happily, we had not been too badly affected by the smoke but had his rescue attempt been delayed by two minutes, there is little doubt that four of his boys would have perished.
    Although it became a standing joke that most of Mum’s time was spent bailing me out of trouble at school or in the courts, I was not into crime in a big way. Occasionally, I would shoplift or steal from a street market, but I was never into mugging or burglary. My main preoccupation was having a good time with my friends, listening to music and meeting girls.
    I was 11 when Susan Marsh, an Anglo-Indian girl with smouldering looks, olive skin and a Venus figure, waltzed into my life. She was the best thing since sliced bread. She was also my first love at school and, as far as I was concerned, she was breathtakingly beautiful. She was the most sought-after girl in Ilford. I was proud to have her as my girlfriend. For the next three or four years, we had a close but volatile relationship. How I loved her. Then, as now, I was unable to control my emotions. If our friendship became strained, I would be depressed and unhappy and nothing could shake me from my gloom. She knew she had me eating from her hand because whenever she threatened to dump me, I would weep rivers. I had also become quite obsessive about keeping her to myself, even to the point of going into battle to make sure nobody else competed for her love.
    As a teenager, my best weapon was my abilityto fight with my fists, but occasionally I would carry a baton down my trouser leg. It was like a truncheon and came in very handy, particularly when one of the lads in our circle (I think it was George Small) became too fresh with Susan. Enraged with jealousy, I cracked him in the face with my fist and then hit him with the baton. That put a stop to his flirtation, although a good-looking mate of his, Steve Parker, also fancied her. That caused further problems which I had to sort out using some muscle.
    Susan Marsh was too attractive for her own good. In fact, she was so gorgeous that everyone in Ilford fancied her. I genuinely loved her. I still lusted after other girls but I loved her. Towards the end, though, she didn’t want to be with me and, eventually, I lost her to a nice, clean-cut black boy who was my opposite. Women have much more power than men and age has got nothing to do with their ability to do your brain in. That, at least, is my experience.
    From the age of 12, my best friend was Colin. We hit it off instantly after meeting at the Caribbean Club in Ilford. I think we saw a bit of ourselves in each other and that reflected image made us fight on the very day we met. Nobody won the fight and, as each of us considered ourselves to be Number One, honour was spared. We became close friends from then on. Blood brothers. Colin went to a different school and, while he was the same size as me, he was two years older. We shared the same birthday and, like twins, became inseparable. Colin lived in Ilford.His house has since been knocked down. We were mates almost up to the time I joined the Army and we did absolutely everything together. If one of us couldn’t get home, we even slept in the same bed. I was much closer to him than I was to my own brothers.
    Colin was the natural leader of our close-knit inner circle,