An Amazing book of survival and danger
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Graham Johnson writes this book from the perpective of the man who the book is based on - Stephen French. Having met with Stephen and done hundreds of hours of interviews the book totaly feels like its being written from the man himself. The author writes the story from Stephens perspective to give a closer feeling to the the personal stories of his life as if hes telling them. The book has so many stories to tell of extrmely dangerous conflict situations between rival gangs, feuds with fellow crew members and the author does not hold back. The author says in the first few pages how he really wanted to get the reader a feeling of Stephens perspective. I really felt you got a very strong sense of the man from this book and read it in 2 days. This guy had many wild encounters for decades. Many people would surely be dead or incarcerated if they were in the same situations. Find out how he survived and how Stephen was able to make change his circumstances by turning his back on crime. A facinating read and clearly written book.
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Great!
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Excellent book!
Unlike another book i recently read on a similar subject this is a well written book with some great stories of life amongst gangland britain.
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Same old self serving story
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Read quite a lot of these style of books and they all seem to have pretty much the same lines,ie us real gangsters,us real hard men and its more like an ego trip thing however this guy is slightly different in that hes actually educated but still lets himself down by making himself out to be the toughest man on the planet and as we all know most of these types only tell the story when they are winners never losers,however history usually tells the true story even great toughs like the late Lenny McLean & Roy Shaw were beaten by fairly average people so on that score the story i felt was more of the same,as for racism certainly never saw any of that maybe there were more white dealers than colours , but all in all if you like the hood element this book is quite interesting
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Great read about Liverpool as a city
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Great read very honest and a all the more disturbing because its true. Having been in the Grafton many times I know how real the book is. I read liverpool stories as often as they are published, and this is as entertaining as any I have read recently. The topic is a disturbing one, but a sad endightment of the society we live in to day. The Frenchman is a scary character indeed, but if you live in that world then there are scary people around every corner. This book doesnt glorify anything, its just the way it is. The more real, the more terrifying it becomes. If you like fiction try Liveroppl author Conrad Jones, and his thrillers,Soft Target, Soft Target 2, and three. They are all set in Liverpool, mostly in the city centre and around Anfield, excellent reading by a local author. Fantastic reading!!!
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superb read
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I don't know about you but normally when I read a book of this sort involving violence, and organised crime. I tend to find that my eyes roll to the back of my head a lot while thinking why am i reading this catalogue of events, which just serve to show us how hard the subject is; and how he is to be feared etc, etc without showing us any substance or reasoning behind his actions other than to save face. Here though in this 200 odd pages we have the likes of which I have never read before in a true crime novel, and that is reasoning, intelligence of thought, and acceptence of guilt.
We firt meet the man Stephen 'The Devil' French when he talks about growing up in the southend of Liverpool, born into a mixed race family ( I live in the north end Walton). The area he lived in was Toxteth, it's an area that was as underprivelleged then as it is today to say the least, and from this point you get the sense that the subject would have done anything to escape the 'ghetto' as he calls it. He starts out his criminal life as a mugger and house burgler.
He tells us about the Toxteth riots, and it is here he reveals something that shows us that he is not your usual violent brute of a man. He explains that after the riots the police could not come into the area, the recession was well under way which resulted in no money, and no jobs. So where was the money going to come from? Drugs!! it's not just econimics that aid the selling of drugs but also the social enviroment (something I never ever considered). so really we get his thoughts and analysis of the situations he finds himself in at various times. this continues right through the book, which only adds to the enjoyment of it.
A majority of people who have read the book accuse Stephen of being Racist. I'm white and did not find that he was, or is. This is because I understand that for a long time in Liverpool, it was an us and them attitude from both races, and at various times his associations with white people have led to conflict. An example of which is when he is working at the Grafton (imagine the bar out of Star Wars crossed with Fraggle Rock and you have the Grafton). He is running the door of a club at a time when racism was stopping black people from crossing the door as a punter, let alone working there and he has a run in with a predominantly white firm who want him off the job. After the initial hostilities we see that Stephen goes on to tell us that he became friends with the ringleader of the gang, and was genuinnly saddened by his death.
I do have some issues with it though, well a couple of questions more than anything. what did his girlfriend do for him to walk away from her? and did he really say when he got his bail from his missus dad who was in the real thing. 'you to me are everything'? What a pearler, he's a legend for this line if nothing else. wherever you are Stephen it was a good read. Good luck to you!
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