If I want to write something, I have to want to write it, because I’m dyslexic and I have Irlen syndrome (a difficulty with visual perceptual processing) which is why I wear these glasses. Because the book took off, they gave me a deal to write another book. I record it all straight off my head, then put some sense in it, so for this new book I’ll find six or eight of other people’s stories and find a thread that will join it all together.” Is it hard work? Yes. Is it messy? Very. Is it fruitful? [whistles] Galore. It’s like an orchard full of fruit. And seeds are falling from the trees and more trees are growing. I love the royals but with my past I never thought they'd let a royal come within 200 yards of me, never mind shake my hand and stuff," he says. "I thought it was a bit mad." By 17 he was an alcoholic and drug addict and his life spiralled into chaos over the next few decades. He became a coldhearted, muscle-bound drug dealer who operated in Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow with major crime gangs.

It's impossible to visit Church on the Street and not be deeply moved by the work the organisation does for those in need. It is an extraordinary place ... ' HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES , from the Foreword It's been a life of extremes, bad and good, so it's been really strange. Very strange indeed. I didn't even have any kind of faith and really kind of self esteem for myself. Very cold character, so I wouldn't have believed my life would turn out like this if you'd have told me 30 years ago." We feed people outside, and we have maybe 2,000 people come through the doors [of our drop-in centre, The Hub] every week. We’re open every day except Saturday. We have nurses, doctors and a mental health team here. When I started to get lots of media interest, it was difficult. But now I know what God’s called me to do: open my mouth around social justice issues and give the gospel. I don’t really care whether people like me. I’ve only got what God’s given me to use, so I don’t apologise for it really.Born into a working-class Catholic family in Burnley, Fleming’s life took a terrible turn when he was raped on his way to school, aged just eleven. In an unbelievably tragic twist, his older sister died that very same night. Not knowing how to process his pain led to a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse, violence and crime.

They couldn’t hold it together. And I was holding them in my arms and praying for them while they were crying, wanting life – while churches were shut. I might have been wrong in what I did, but I was trying to keep people alive long enough to hear the gospel, because I knew what it had done for me.I didn’t break any laws – I did my best anyway. The police tried to arrest me once in a car park – I wasn’t brilliant at not hugging people, because the guys I was hugging were dying. On one street where I was delivering food parcels, three men under 40 killed themselves in three weeks. It's impossible to visit Church on the Street and not be deeply moved by the work the organisation does for those in need. It is an extraordinary place ... 'HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES, from the Foreword Everything is free. We don’t charge for anything. We have hot food served every day and a foodbank too. We have washers and dryers, we have a clothes bank, we have showers for people who can’t afford their gas and electric bills. We even have a hairdresser who’s always inundated when they come in!” He told Lancs Live: "You know you can't get your head round these things until they happen to you. It's crazy really that they want to make the TV show." In it, the future King said: "It’s impossible to visit Church on the Street and not be deeply moved by the work the organisation does for those in need.

The truth is that I arranged to meet him again because I wanted to kill him. I had a knife with me, but I had a realisation in that moment. I thought: I’ve lived with what he did to me for 30 years. I’ve destroyed myself and everybody around me. My sin has been bad enough. Why would I live in somebody else’s? He said: “I have been helping people on the streets for around a decade but COTSM only became a registered charity around four years ago. I get more death threats as a Christian than I did when I was doing the other [criminal] stuff! The things that have been levelled at me did upset me: that I’m just a social worker and I’m not giving the gospel. I just think they’ve misunderstood the gospel. I'd want it to be better with my children, that's the truth. But it's all right - my family have come to accept me, and love me, and care for me. It's the best I can do. We’ve set our stall up to deal with it. There’s been new hubs set up here and there, but we’ve been doing it for years. There’s been a need for it for years. It’s not new. Here we have NHS workers who help us. We have the Hep C and mental health team that come in as well, along with our own councillors that we pay.When I was homeless, on my first night ever sleeping on the street, I went into a church. They had tea and biscuits and stuff. I was shaking, because if I didn’t drink, I could have a fit. They were nice people, but they couldn’t wait to get rid of me. He writes in a colloquial style, no doubt to create a sense of authenticity. You have to get used to such sentences as “I began talking to my new pal the Holy Ghost. . .” Yet he has a degree in theology from Manchester University. We have our own counsellors, hot food, a food bank, showers, a needle exchange, washing machines, opticians, Citizens Advice. And we have prayer and Bible study, right in the middle of all that. On a Sunday, we have our Sunday services.

I was sexually assaulted on my way to school by a stranger. I had to hide my crying because this man said he’d kill my mum and dad if I told them. I got up in the morning and decided I was going to tell my dad. But when I went downstairs, he said: “Sit down, your sister’s dead.” I somehow drove the car to a nearby industrial estate and, probably for the first time since I was a little boy, I prayed. It was a demand more than a prayer: “God, if you’re real, you’d better help me!” I got no reply. READ MORE: Burnley Tory MP accused of disrespectful to Queen Elizabeth II as leaflets pushed through letterboxes A lot of prostitutes come in and we have hair a hairdresser who comes in to do men's hair. Every Sunday, in the middle of all this, I do the church service. It works.It was that simple. Peace flooded in. It transformed me. I used to think that forgiveness was putting my arms around somebody and saying: “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine!” That’s not my understanding now. The charity means so much to people. It keeps people alive with food banks, showers, clothes bank, professional mental health workers and more in the church.” During Covid, everything was shut. Even the churches were furloughing people. But we’re Church on the Street, so that’s where our church was and is – so we found ways to stay open. I know he’s never acted before but he has the same mental health traits as me and seems to cope with them in the same way as I do – except I’m not the heavyweight champion of the world. Perhaps a more formal style might have enabled some better reflections; for the book conceals as much as it reveals. It is a collage of incidents and people from his life. There are enigmatic glimpses of his involvement with drugs and gangs and carrying a gun. He writes about his appalling treatment of his mother — he steals from her purse as she lies dying — his wives and children, though we have no idea what became of most of them. There seems little remorse for many of the lives that he must have blighted.