'People say that truth is stranger than fiction, and in my case it is definitely so. Who would believe, looking at me today, that most of my years have been spent in a sinister underworld of crime, corruption and murder? A gangland world where the famous and the infamous - including stars like Frank Sinatra and politicians - and the most notorious criminals in British history not only socialised but did business together.'

The Brutal Truth is a startling and sensational account of a world far removed from normal, everyday life - the world of gangster Eric Mason, one of the underworld's most feared and respected figures. One thing Eric Mason soon learned was how to look after himself, a necessary skill during terrible years in a home for young dclinquents.

He moved on from there to form associations with, among others, the Kray twins, Frank Mitchell (the 'Mad Axeman'), Jack 'the Hat' McVitie, John McVicar and the Great Train Robbery gang. The Brutal Truth treads where no other books dare as Mason describes his 'time' in the most brutal prisons in Britain: Brixton, Dartmoor, Wandsworth, Strangeways...

He portrays his spell in Wandsworth's famous 'E' wing, where he listened to the footsteps of condemned men waiting to be hanged, and the haunting sound of the gallows trapdoor banging against the cell wall.