Читать книгу Bindon: Fighter, Gangster, Lover - The True Story of John Bindon, a Modern Legend - John C Bindon & Wensley Clarkson - Страница 5

It is more than twenty years since I first moved into Fulham and heard about the legendary John Bindon. His name came up everywhere, from the dinner parties of South Kensington to the seediest riverside nightclubs. Now, many years of investigation in homes, pubs and clubs across west London have culminated in this biography. I don’t know whether it’ll be a bestseller, but I’m certain you’ll be enthralled by the life of this outrageous character. It isn’t just another book about a cold and dark criminal – there truly were many more sides to John Bindon.

Researching Bindon’s life has left me with myriad impressions of the man himself, because his story is extremely complex. As I started to write it, I realised I had a great deal of material I couldn’t use because the sources had shady, ulterior motives and my aim has always been to show Bindon in the light he truly deserved.

More importantly, as I researched this book, I realised that Bindon’s own words summed him up best: ‘I’m not scared. I’ve lived the life of ten men.’

The story you are about to read is the one John Bindon would have wanted to tell. It is a legend that has grown ever more fascinating since his death: this is the truth about a man who made an impression on everyone he met, from the lowest of the low to the most powerful family in this land.

In researching this book, I have been taken into the confidence of many people who, for their own reasons, would prefer to remain anonymous. I have respected the requests of these mysterious ‘friends’, and I need only say that my decision to do so is more to protect the guilty than the innocent.

Wensley Clarkson

London, 2007