The Guv'nor - Lenny McLean

After staring the excellent book on Paul Briggs I forgot to bring it with me on what I'll describe as my run-away-get-away so I needed aothr similar book, and I'd heard nothing but good things about this 'un. You may wonder why I mentioned Briggy's name well to be honest the books, and the lifestyles of the two are similar, yet opposite at the same time. For example both were beaten as kids, Briggs by his father, Lenny by his step father, both beat people up to get along and both were legitamately hard hitting bastards (no offence to either man there). Differences are Lenny's who anti-drug's stance whilst Paul took drugs...did sold and dealt ...  Read the complete review

WHAT IS IT ABOUT: Famed east end 70s hard-man and champion at bare knuckle boxing, Lenny Mclean retells his life story of crime, fighting and general thuggery with a bit of humour thrown in for good measure. WAS IT ANY GOOD: I'd never heard about Lenny before I read this book, but I'm glad I did. The basic story is of how this really tough guy worked as a bare knuckle boxer, fighting gypsies and hard-men for cash. The film 'Snatch' gives a nod to Lenny who had a role in Guy Ritchie's 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells' before he died of cancer. As with all autobiographies, it's very subjective, and you have to question the way this ...  Read the complete review

The Guv'nor is a book about the life of eastend hard man Lenny McLean, this book, in my opinion is absolutely brilliant, and goes in depth into some of the worst times in Lenny's life but also shows that even the hardest of men can have a heart and wont stand for "wrong ens". I have read many books about various hardmen, like carl merritt, Bartley Gorman and Roy 'Pretty Boy' shaw just to name a few and can say that is is in the top 3 of this genre of book. He doesnt try to give it the big "I AM" the way i found Pretty Boy's book to be and there are alot of good monents in this book but at the same time a lot of sad ones too, he was known as "the ...  Read the complete review

Lenny Mclean is a book that you must read over and over to bring into mind who the man was , To overcome such a harsh upbringing at the hands of his step father. Lenny was a book brought for me over a year ago and I havent gone a month without re-reading it. Classed as the deadliest bare knuckle fighter in Britain beating roy ' pretty boy ' shaw. Lenny rubbed shoulders with the famous and the harsh underground of crime. In lennys words whatever he did was for his family in his words to put steam on the table. Lennys early life brought him to understand that the beating as a kid made him a ' hard bastard ' with over 3000 fights and ...  Read the complete review