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Audiobooks Narrated by Karl Jenkinson
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Born in East London in 1949, Lenny McLean grew up in an area that had been ravaged by the Second World War. Although money was scarce and fighting was commonplace, a camaraderie and deep sense of honour and respect remained. A victim of violent abuse at the hands of his stepfather, Lenny spent much of his teenage life in borstal as he began to follow a life of crime. However, it was his ability as a fighter that was to turn his life around.
Lenny McLean inspired fear in many, but respect from all, as he became a bare-knuckle fighting legend. His fame became even greater in later life, appearing in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels just as his autobiography was reaching the top of the bestsellers chart. Lenny's untimely death from cancer in 1998 marked the beginning of the end of the old Cockney way of life and interest in his story has only increased since his passing, inspiring documentaries as well as a feature film, My Name is Lenny.
In these unedited conversations between Lenny and his 'book man' Peter Gerrard, featuring many anecdotes that did not appear in The Guv'nor, we get to see the man behind the public image. As he looks back on his life, these transcripts reveal Lenny's humour and charm as well as the volatility that made him one of the most notorious figures ever to emerge from the East End.
Although the original interview tapes have been lost, this immersive audiobook has replicated Lenny and Peter's conversations as they really happened.
HMP Wakefield. 'Monster Mansion'. Hell to be inside. Almost impossible to escape. This prison has seen some of the most infamous prisoners of all time pass through its cells - from Levi Bellfield to Harold Shipman, Ian Huntley and Charles Bronson.
Jonathan Levi and Emma French are the perfect authors to give chilling insight into all the terrible men who have served time there. After detailing the shocking truth of life in Britain's most high-profile psychiatric hospital in their bestselling book Inside Broadmoor, now they will take readers behind bars in this the UK's most notorious prison.
Inside Wakefield Prison will trace its long and intriguing history, from when it was first built in 1594 all the way up to the present day. Today, just over 750 of the country's most dangerous offenders are kept there, including 'Hannibal the Cannibal' Robert Maudsley, notorious killer Jeremy Bamber and former Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.
Featuring all the sinister and truly horrifying stories that have emerged from the prison, as well as new unheard tales, this book will fascinate and shock readers on every page. Told with the help of interviews with staff, experts - and even in the words of the prisoners themselves - this is a no-holds-barred journey into the dark.
'Channels the hard-edged realism of Get Carter into a salutary thriller' - Racing Post
Welcome to an after-dark world of new money, hedonism and excess. A world of luxurious nightclubs where racketeers, gamblers and glamorous women mixed with entrepreneurs, bunny girls, politicians and policemen.
Bandit Country is a gripping, atmospheric true-crime noir. It is the story of Britain's 1960's gambling boom, as the country emerged from years of hardship to embrace exotic night-life and entertainment, all supplied by the Mafia.
It is an emotional, visceral story of brothers: the Luvaglios, who dreamed of an empire founded among the hard industrial skylines and bridges of Newcastle, built on good times and bright lights - dreams that, for a moment, were lived in technicolour; and the Kray twins, who looked up to this new kingdom from London and saw a slice of action they wanted for themselves.
And above all, it is a story of betrayal, murder and a shocking miscarriage of justice, as empires crumble, friends turn on friends, and the good times come screeching to a halt. Sure to be loved by fans of Peaky Blinders, this story - that inspired classic British gangster film Get Carter - isn't quite like anything you've read before. Turn the page and roll the dice. . .
In his latest book, bestselling author Cass Pennant takes an engaging and unparalleled look at some of the most volatile and violent scenes of fans following their football clubs to have unfolded over the past five decades, and examines the lengths to which many will go to put one over their local rivals.
Here is history that also examines everything from the changing face of football violence, to who gets involved - and why. It looks, too, at how the' firms' operate, both home and away, and at the effects of the football establishment's often counter-productive attempts to contain hooliganism on the psychology of supporters.
Has the war on hooliganism been successfully stamped out? Can it ever be won? This remarkable and informative book gives a frank examination of football violence to show how different inter-club and inter-regional rivalries have evolved - and features many first-hand accounts of incidents that make chilling reading. It builds up to provide the most comprehensive look behind the match-day madness and the activities of some of British football's most notorious hooligans, to give answers as to why these games are so important to supporters.
The history of such infamous 'firms' as the ICF, the Bushwackers, the Headhunters, and the Red Army has never been fully documented . . . until now.
You're Going Home in a F*cking Ambulance is an eye-opening study of a problem that refuses to go away, by a writer who knows his subject inside-out.
Gangsters, hitmen, murderers and terrorists . . . Kate Kray has met them all. Using her unrivalled links to the criminal underworld, she has asked the questions many would be too terrified to utter.
From seasoned hard man Roger Shaw to feared detainee Charles Bronson, Kate lifts the lid on the crimes they committed, and speaks to the men themselves to find out what exactly makes them tick. Infamous criminals, now seen as legends of British crime, open up to reveal their fated paths and the instrumental moments which caused them to turn to a life outside the law.
These are the stories of the men behind the headlines, each one with a unique story to tell. But there is one thing they all have in common: they inhabit a world in which the rest of us fear to tread.
9.30am on 22 January 1993. The moment in crime history that one of Britain's most audacious thefts ever took place and the legend of 'Fast Eddie' was created.
This is the story of how Securicor guard Eddie Maher managed to pull off a £1.2 million heist, fled the country despite every port being closed, spawned an international manhunt, and managed to evade capture for 20 years. As Britain's Most Wanted Man, he led 30 detectives, FBI and Interpol on a wild goose chase across the USA.
Dubbed 'Fast Eddie' by the press, he was always one step ahead and after two decades on the run with his family using a series of of aliases and identities, Eddie began to think he'd committed the perfect crime until a cruel and dramatic betrayal proved otherwise...
Like a Hollywood movie script and told in full for the first time, Fast Eddie is the compelling story of how an ordinary British man became America's most notorious fugitive.
THIS IS THE CLASSIC BOOK THAT STARTED AN ENTIRE GENRE - THE STORY OF THE MOST ICONIC HARDMAN OF THEM ALL.
Lenny McLean was one of the deadliest bareknuckle fighters Britain has ever seen. He had dear, powerful friends, but he also had terrible enemies. So much so that he had two bullet wounds in his back - each from a different attack. He was also stabbed repeatedly - always from behind. But Lenny was also a warm, big-hearted grizzly bear of a man, whose main weakness was an overwhelming desire to put the welfare of his mates ahead of his own well-being.
In his extraordinary autobiography, he tells of how the mafia flew him to New York to take on their greatest bareknuckle boxer in a multi-million pound illicit bout. The Mafia's man lasted less than three minutes. When the IRA fronted up a London gang in a money-laundering scam, Lenny was brought in to intimidate the terrorists. The IRA, not surprisingly, backed off. . .
His most serious trial came when he was accused of murder. Fighting to prove his innocence against a minimum sentence of twenty-five years, Lenny never gave up - and went on to be found not guilty.
This is a tale of one man's triumph against almost insurmountable odds, in a battle that Len fought every day for himself, and to 'put steam on the table' for his wife and kids.
THE TRUE STORY OF LONDON'S MOST PROLIFIC ARMED ROBBERY GANG
The average bank robbery takes around four minutes. The essential ingredients are ruthlessness, cunning and plenty of bottle. You'll also need a weapon, a disguise and a getaway car. If you have all those things, then you could go to work right now. The Bradish boys had all these things and, boy, did they go to work.
The 'Dirty Dozen' were a ruthless federation of criminals who ran the armed robbery game in London for over a decade.
When charismatic leader 'Gentleman' Jim Doyle was jailed, the innovative but violent Bradish twins, Sean and Vincent, stepped up to take the throne. Hardened by a life in London's most lawless corners, they recruited a tight-knit crew to forge a reputation as the brutal kings of their underworld trade.
Banks, security vans, post offices, travel agents - anywhere was fair game and nowhere was safe. With endless money at their disposal, the gang spent freely on cars, drugs and decadence. Life was good.
But with the Met's tough-as-nails Flying Squad hot on their heels, a member of the inner circle cracked under the pressure and turned grass - and so began the thrilling chase-down of the Bradish boys and their illicit empire. The Dirty Dozen is the real story of the rise and fall of London's most feared crime syndicate.
The heartbreaking true story of two families' thirty-year fight for justice for their murdered daughters
On 9 October 1986, Russell Bishop sexually assaulted and strangled nine-year-old Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, in woods near Brighton. He did not answer for his crimes for over thirty years.
Bishop - a petty criminal known to both girls' families - was charged after his suspiciously close involvement in the search for the bodies. But a last-minute change of testimony from his then-girlfriend allowed him to go free, and the Babes in the Woods murders became one of Britain's most infamous cold cases.
In this first book on the case, veteran crime reporter Paul Cheston brings to life this thirty-year saga of murder, betrayal and injustice - before three decades of hurt led, at last, to healing, justice and hope for the parents of two murdered girls.
Written with the approval and cooperation of the Fellows family, The Babes in the Woods Murders sheds light once and for all on the awful truth behind what happened on 9 October 1986, and how the courtroom dramas that unfolded over a generation finally brought down one of Britain's most depraved killers.
This is the shocking story of a doctor who was addicted to murder: a man who wickedly abused the trust of his patients with horrifying results.
He was a pillar of the community: attentive, kind, never too busy to chat. Yet behind this charming facade lay the world's most prolific serial killer, with at least 200 victims. Small, bespectacled Dr Shipman was making house calls - and then committing murder with bloodcurdling expertise and professionalism. He saw himself as playing God.
This sensational audiobook looks behind the man and reveals how, throughout his 25-year campaign of evil, Shipman continued to be a doting husband and father, trusted and adored by the majority of his patients. Evil Beyond Belief looks at how he was able to get away with murder for so long and - most important of all - why he was driven by a twisted, insatiable lust for death. It also looks at the events leading up to Shipman's suicide and examines the effect that this dramatic event had on the families of his numerous victims.
'There is time and then there is Broadmoor time'
Broadmoor. Few place names in the world have such chilling resonance. For over 150 years, it has contained the UK's most violent, dangerous and psychopathic.
Since opening as an asylum for the criminally insane in 1863 it has housed the perpetrators of many of the most shocking crimes in history; including Jack the Ripper suspect James Kelly, serial killers Peter Sutcliffe, John Straffen and Kenneth Erskine, armed robber Charles Bronson, gangster Ronnie Kray, and cannibal Peter Bryan.
The truth about what goes on behind the Victorian walls of the high security hospital has largely remained a mystery, but now with unprecedented access TV journalist Jonathan Levi and cultural historian Emma French paint a vivid picture of life at Broadmoor, after nearly a decade observing and speaking to those on the inside.
Including interviews with the staff, its experts and the patients themselves, Inside Broadmoor is the most comprehensive study of the institution to-date.
Published at the dawn of a new era for the hospital, this is the full story of Broadmoor's past, present and future and a dark but enlightening journey into the minds of Britain's most dangerous and how they are treated.
Eddie Richardson is the last brand-name gangster. Say the name and the world of violent criminality grabs you by the throat.
The Richardson brothers, Eddie and Charlie, and their infamous 'Torture Gang', made money while their rivals Ronnie and Reggie Kray made fatal mischief. They fought each other, but now, in 2018, Eddie Richardson says: 'They tell me blood is thicker than water, but with Charlie it wasn't so. He was evil.'
With his brother dead, Eddie Richardson feels free to detail the story of a vicious family feud that provoked extravagant acrimony. No Handcuffs unravels the mysteries of decades of crime and political incident. The story of a turbulent era, it rivals the most imaginative fiction in its portrayal of gangland life with all its chanciness and rawness and careless disregard for any obstacle on the way to its target, the big money.
In an inspired collaboration with bestselling author Douglas Thompson, the mature Eddie Richardson is given a voice to reflect on his journey from the scrapyards of South London to the glitz and glamour of the West End nightclubs, to the flesh and tease of Soho, down Downing Street and through the door of Number 10 to the perils of espionage and international intrigue, and his elevation to demigod status in hard-men territory - and finally as a high-security inmate at Her Majesty's pleasure, but with a personal fridge kept well stocked with gourmet food.
No Handcuffs resonates today for, if anything, greed and corruption are more perverse, more rampant. As Eddie Richardson points out: 'We wrote the handbook for them.'
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