Fool's Gold: Diary of a Rock Generation Love Affair Revisited

"Hope I die before I get old..."Really? Er...hang on a minute... When The Who's Roger Daltrey stammered out this pilled-up death-wish in 1965's "My Generation" he was expressing a certain teenage countercultural angst, but it's one thing to feel that way at twenty and quite another at sixty.

This true-life diary fast-forwards the lives of two young lovers from their footloose twenties to something like maturity. They may have parted, but they have never really been apart.
From the bohemian hinterland of a university campus in the Essex marshes to the half-life of the London Underground's roaring tunnels, from the glittering display cases of Liberty's of London to an East London high-rise, from abject despair to parenthood, their lives continue to intersect and entwine.

And a spark of that old arty rebelliousness continues to glow, even in the hospital wards in which one of them is treated for a serious illness before the end of this diary.

Touching and often funny, the text messages they exchange speak of lives lived perhaps not wisely but with great mutual affection.
Growing old was an unlikely outcome if your path were ever to cross that of 1960's gangland enforcer 'Mad' Frankie Fraser.

In a companion volume, the ghost of 'Mad Frank' conducts us on a themed guided tour of crime and punishment in the Smithfield area of the City of London. A pavement shooting, a daring jewel heist, bloody executions, stake-burnings, body snatching, supernatural devilry and much more. The stones beneath your feet speak of the often uneven and haphazard development of law enforcement in the capital city.

A paternally affectionate gangster is one of the outcasts featured in The Rolling Stones' 1968 social critique "Jig-Saw Puzzle". He approaches the day job as a violent criminal with an almost religious fervour. The contrasting religiosity of a bishop's daughter in the first verse conceals a certain jealousy of the time-wasting tramp on the other side of the street. These characters share an outsider status, and the band struggles to make sense of these puzzling contradictions.

This is a book for all those trying to piece together their own personal jig-saw puzzles, make sense of an often confusing world and come to terms with the mysteries of Fate.

Fully illustrated with photographs by the author.