Gilbert Kelland’s police career brought him into close contact with the crumbling twilight world of 1950s Notting Hill during the reign of landlord Perac Rachman, seamy Soho before and after the clean-up legislation of the 1960s, and the upper crust corruption of the Profumo scandal. Later he was involved in the police campaign against terrorism, the development of the controversial ‘Supergrasses’ and the Flying Squad’s investigation of the Brinks Mat bullion robbery.

“Crime in London” provides a fascinating overview of the changing patterns of criminality in Britain’s capital, from a policeman who was actually there - and rose to become an Assistant Commissioner at New Scotland Yard.