The Guv'nor and Me My Life with Lenny McLean

Don't cross The Neck.

As the right-hand man to 'The Guv’nor' himself, Lenny McLean, John 'The Neck' Houchin is a living legend and is now telling his story for the first time. John trained daily with Lenny in the gym to achieve his huge bulk and neck, all 23 inches of it, required to frighten the hell out of troublemakers. As the enforcers for the Krays and the Richardsons, they worked together regularly over many years 'sorting out' whatever needed sorting. These are the mean streets of London back when swift justice as well as fearless loyalty were the order of the day.

A new insider take from one of the most notorious characters of the time, this book is full of chippy dialogue, gangster banter, the biggest brawls, old school honour codes and pithy reflection on the changing times – from the hard men to the high life.

Standing at 6ft 1in and almost as wide with a 23 inch neck, John 'The Neck' Houchin, as he was aptly known, rose from boarding school graduate to a club bouncing brawler in the 70s and 80s minding the roughest and toughest of London's torrid and sometimes ungovernable dancehalls. Now 56 and living in Yorkshire, this is his first book.