This new autobiography was written with James Lawton, the respected Independent newspaper journalist, who also cooperated on the biographies of Nobby Stiles and Joe Jordan among others.

The book inevitably opens with the Munch tragedy and unsurprisingly revisits that dreadful event of February 1958 on several occasions. Bobby Charlton somehow survived that catastrophic plane accident when so many of his young teammates perished. He came to, still strapped in his seat, fifty yards away from the crumpled Elizabethan airliner.

An event such as that is certain to affect anyone's life, how could it not, and yet somehow it encapsulated the spirit of Manchester United Football Club. It took ten years to re-build the team under their charismatic manager Sir Matt Busby, to sufficient strength to compete for and eventually win the European Cup on that memorable May night at Wembley in 1968.

The book is filled with interesting stories that will not just be of interest to supporters of Manchester United but to football fans everywhere. Of his upbringing and family difficulties, of his famous footballing forebears, and of how he would beg tickets from Bill Shankly for Liverpool FC's early European glory nights, and would regularly trek down the East Lancs road to the Anfield Stadium to take in the spectacle, only to be warmly welcomed on his arrival there by everyone. How things have changed in areas such as this, and not always for the better.

The book is a moving portrait of England's record goal scorer ever. Of his times playing with Duncan Edwards and George Best and Denis Law, of his admiration for Eric Cantona, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane, of how he first came across David Beckham as a young schoolboy on one of his children's football courses. There is praise too for the current manager Sir Alex Ferguson, a manager that Bobby has supported at every turn since his appointment way back in the mid eighties.

At the end of the book you will find his selection of the best Manchester United eleven from 1955 to the present day, and that makes very interesting reading, and includes one or two surprises.

If you are interested in football, regardless of whether you follow the reds of Manchester, you will find something here to warm you on a cold winter night. Poignant, memorable, thrilling, are just three of the adjectives that spring to mind that belong to those amazing times. I've read it once in record time, and I shall read it again before the year is out.