A CHANCE meeting in Goodramgate’s Habit Bar has yielded a boxing autobiography that is attracting five-star reviews on Amazon.

Last July, freelance journalist Nick Towle, who has provided copy for The Press in the past, was sharing a drink with a friend in the popular York venue at the same time as former British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion John L Gardner and his wife were stopping off for some sustenance on their way home from visiting family in Newcastle.

Towle – already the author of Blood is Only Red Sweat which chronicled the life of Yorkshire bare-knuckle fighter Dave “The Beast” Radford – soon struck up a conversation with the sociable Gardner and, following a phone call to publishers Warcry Press, an idea for The Forgotten Champ book was conceived and quickly commissioned.

It is easy to understand why, as Gardner’s story is a terrific tale – both inside and outside of the ring – with Towle doing a great job helping to bring back to attention the East End contender who, somewhere along the line, became the missing link for many boxing fans charting the recent history of British heavyweight fighting, spanning the eras of Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner, Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis and Anthony Joshua.

Towle completed the 230-page, £9.95 paperback book in six months, having undertaken all editing and proof-reading duties himself following five two-day long meetings with 65-year-old Gardner in York, Leeds and Preston.

“John always wanted to write a book but never really had the opportunity and, as is suggested by the title, he wondered whether anybody would be interested in reading it, because he had faded from the public eye somewhat,” Towle said. “But it gives me immense satisfaction that I have now helped John to tell his story.

“It was a labour of love and my heart was in the project right from the start. He’s a very nice bloke who is very articulate and the book wrote itself in many ways, because he has the gift of the gab and plenty of confidence, so it was just a case of him rhapsodising to me really without any prompting.”

The book gets off to an excellent, if brutal start, with the vivid description of a beating which you expect to be from a championship bout, only to learn that it is being handed out by Gardner’s abusive father when the publication’s subject was an alarmingly young age.

There are other horrific tales of domestic violence and, while the language used is strong, it is never gratuitous and just serves to add authenticity to the words of a man whose vocabulary is as eloquent as it is industrial.

Gardner hides nothing about his unhappy childhood with his father’s tyranny compounded by the bullying he suffered as an overweight choir boy who wore Dr Barnardo spectacles and the love he felt for, and was shown, by his Italian mother was clearly a saving grace in those formative years.

Boxing also gave him focus at a vital stage in his life and prevented him from joining a colourful supporting cast in the book, such as his brother who became the go-to getaway driver for Cockney gangsters, although there were inevitable highs and lows.

His first bout saw watching former Doctor Who and Worzel Gummidge actor Jon Pertwee correctly predict that Gardner would become a champion.

But the setbacks are given equal prominence with the fact that he thought he had been knocked out in the fifth round following his maiden loss and not the first demonstrating the toll that can be exacted on any boxer’s brain when they lace up the gloves.

Also graphically described are his grudge-match victory over mouthy ex-con Paul Sykes and defeat at the hands of American Michael Dokes when he was hit by 23 unanswered punches in a world-title eliminator.

Gardner would indeed retire as the only European champion since the war not to get a crack at a world title, missing out on a shot at Muhammad Ali, who he once sparred with in a public show, when the legendary icon pulled out of a 1981 show, although £60,000 in compensation provided some consolation.

It probably swelled the local bookmakers’ coffers too with Gardner admitting to a gambling addiction that once cost him £23,000 in a one day and an estimated £0.5million during his life.

The books details his own scrapes with the law, including a night in prison with the notorious Ronnie Knight and being given an 18-month suspended sentence by York Crown Court for threatening a renowned local bully with an axe in a Pickering betting shop.

He gives his opinions, meanwhile, on unscrupulous boxing promoters as well as the celebrities he brushed shoulders with, including an unlikely friendship with Lionel Blair, who he shared nights out with in Stringfellows and appeared alongside on the tap-dancer’s popular 1980s’ Give Us A Clue TV charades game show.

The book ends on a poignant note with Gardner currently battling cancer, which he inspiringly regards as the latest of a series of fights in his life to battle and not just the 35 he won out of 39 bouts between the ropes.

He has cheated death several times, having been beaten up by his own business partners after opening a bar in Tenerife.

Gardner was also stabbed 14 times by a frenzied drug dealer when he was the landlord of a Gateshead pub.

Both incidents are retold in a compelling story that should ensure he is never forgotten again.