Over the last two decades, Brian Cockerill has ruled his world with an iron fist. Using nothing but his hands as weapons, he has patrolled the streets, clubs and raves of Britain in order to keep order and to 'tax' those whose ill-gotten gains he sees fit to take a share of. Drug dealers and shady club promoters everywhere know that, if The Taxman is in town, it's time to pay up or get out. All know of the appalling violence this man can exert on his enemies, and of the incredible presence of body and mind that he possesses. Yet despite his appalling record of aggression, Brian is a man who lives by rules and respect - balanced yet unpredictable, he has never used weapons, and those who have used arms against him have barely lived to regret it. The facts of his life are as amazing and awe-inspiring as they are true.

Brian Cockerill has ruled his world with an iron fist. Using nothing but his hands as weapons, he has patrolled the streets, clubs and raves of Britain in order to keep order and to 'tax' those whose ill-gotten gains he sees fit to take a share of. Yet despite his appalling record of aggression, Brian is a man who lives by rules and respect.

Few footballers have 'Jailhouse Rock' played over the PA when the make their professional debut, but that's what happened to Jamie Lawrence when he came on as a substitute for Sunderland against Middlesbrough in 1993. In a life that has seen him go from prison to the football premiership, Jamie has one hell of a story to tell.In a career that has lasted over 12 years, Jamie Lawrence has played in the Premiership against some of the world's best players, including David Beckham. He has won the Liverpool Cup with Leicester and has played for Jamaica I World Cup qualifiers. But his route into football's elite was far from conventional, for Jamie spent his late teens in Borstal.Jamie's skill for football emerged at the age of three, but although he played for local teams in Battersea as a schoolboy, he wasn't scouted by a prefoessional club. When his parents returned to Jamaica when he was 17, Jamie fell into a life of petty crime. It was during his second spell in prison, at Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight, that he began to turn his life around. He joined the prison football team and his talent was spotted when they played a semi-professional team. Three months after his release from prison in 1993, Jamie was signed by Sunderland.Jamie's character, which is as colourful as his ever-changing hair styles, has endeared him to everyone he meets. Fans, managers, team-mates, opponents, friends and ex-lovers all tell tales of his various escapades, including his legendary capacity for consuming Guinness and his numerous sexual adventures. And Jamie reveals how he has matured to the point that he is now in a settled relationship and is taking responsibility for his children.This biography of a hilarious insight into one of football's greatest characters.

Everybody in the unlicensed fight game knows that only one man has the honour of being titled 'Guv'nor' - and that man is Lew 'Wild Thing' Yates. Yates began boxing at the age of six, and as an adult he was ruthless in pursuit of his dream of becoming world heavyweight champion. But when his licence was revoked following an assault on a referee, he turned to unlicensed boxing. By day, Yates pounded punchbags and the streets in an effort to reach the peak of physical fitness as he prepared for his epic battle with Roy 'Pretty Boy' Shaw. At night, he pounded gangsters and drug dealers foolish enough to take him on in the nightclubs where he worked. Wild Thing documents how Yates rose to the top of his bloody profession. When it comes to his fighting ability, he doesn't need to boast, brag or exaggerate. With Lew Yates, what you see is what you hope you're never going to get. This is his remarkable story.

When Stilks was a kid growing up in London, he was so poor that he had to go out hunting pigeons for his family's supper. Now he has risen to become one of the most famous club doorman. This autobiography includes anecdotesnbsp;such as the night he saved Sid Vicious from murder, and how he has been shot with both guns and crossbows. Even Lenny "The Guv'nor" McLean once said that Stilks was always the best man to have behind you in a ruck.

With a frightening capacity for extreme violence, Tyneside protection hardman Viv Graham struck fear into the hearts of his enemies, yet his benevolence to local charities and schemes to keep kids away from drugs and crime was well known. A legend in his own lifetime, he was the ultimate maverick troubleshooter whose size and ability to fight enabled him to live just as he wishes, never forgetting the deprived community he came from, who in times of need, considered him the fourth emergency service. Teeside drugs enforcer Lee Duffy had half his foot shot off in an assassination attempt and his skull beaten with a crowbar, yet his streetwise instinct remained unmatched. Proud to be known as Viv's arch enemy, Lee was feared and respected in equal measure and wanted to get out of the game for the sake of his family, but was so deeply involved that there was only one way he would ever leave...With unprecedented access to friends, family members and associates, Stephen Richards dispels many of the myths surrounding these legendary figures to create the ultimate biography of Britain's deadliest rivals.

Monte Cassino is the true story of one of the bitterest and bloodiest of the Allied struggles against the Nazi army. Long neglected by historians, the horrific conflict saw over 350,000 casualties, while the worst winter in Italian memory and official incompetence and backbiting only worsened the carnage and turmoil. Combining groundbreaking research in military archives with interviews with four hundred survivors from both sides, as well as soldier diaries and letters, Monte Cassino is both profoundly evocative and historically definitive. Clearly and precisely, Matthew Parker brilliantly reconstructs Europe’s largest land battle–which saw the destruction of the ancient monastery of Monte Cassino–and dramatically conveys the heroism and misery of the human face of war.

Meet the hardest men in Britain - minders, villains, gangsters, bodyguards, SAS hitmen, murderers and terrorists. In this awesome follow up to the hugely successful Hard Bastards and Hard Bastards 2, Kate Kray, who was married to Ronnie Kray, gets the answers to questions nobody else would dare to ask. We learn the truth about what drives some of these characters to live on the edge of the law and to go as far as they do to get what they want. For some, it is merely a matter of gaining respect or boosting their reputations, for others it is a case of striving for survival. Each of these elite characters is different, and each has a unique tale to tell, yet all of them have one thing in common - they inhabit a world that few of us would dare to venture into.

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.

One man's quest to realise a boyhood dream and break a national record. Sean Dooley seems like a well adjusted, functioning member of society but beneath the respectable veneer he harbours a dark secret. He is a hard-core birdwatcher (aka twitcher'). Sean takes a year off to try to break the Australian twitching record - he has to see more than 700 birds in twelve months. Travelling the length and breadth of Australia, he stops at nothing in search of this birdwatching Holy Grail, blowing his inheritance, his career prospects and any chance he has of finding a girlfriend. Part confessional, part travelogue, this is a true story about obsession. It's about seeking the meaning of life, trying to work out what normal' is, and searching for the elusive Grey Falcon (the bird, not the car). Sean's story of how he followed his childhood dream of becoming a national champion is both inspiring and ridiculous. Could this be the most pathetic great achievement in Australian history?