Our Story (book)

Last updated
Our Story
Our Story (book) by Ron and Reg Kray.jpg
Author Ronnie Kray and Reginald Kray
with Fred Dinenage
LanguageEnglish
Genre Autobiography
Publisher Sidgwick & Jackson 1988 - Pan Books 1989
Publication date
1988 and 8 September 1989
Media typePrint (Hardback)
(Paperback)
Pages224
ISBN 0-283-99525-4
OCLC 18416022

Our Story is an autobiographical book by Ronnie and Reggie Kray with Fred Dinenage. It was first released in 1988 by Sidgwick & Jackson, and in paperback on 8 September 1989 by Pan Books.

Contents

Synopsis

Our Story is an autobiography by the Kray Twins, assisted by their ghostwriter, first published in 1988. The twins were notorious East End underworld gang leaders during the "swinging" sixties. This book tells their story from their humble beginnings in Bethnal Green to their life imprisonment in 1969, largely in their own words.

The hardback and the Pan paperback versions contain 16 pages of black and white photographs of the twins and their friends, associates and enemies/victims.

The book's Foreword and its "A Final Word" are authored by Fred Dinenage. Thirteen Chapters are ghostwritten with the twins, jointly and individually. Reg and Ron Kray are credited as the authors of: 1. Memories of an East End Childood; 2. Crime and Punishment; and 8. The Women We Loved. Reg nominally authors: 3. The Swinging Sixties; 6. The Last Supper - the Killing of Jack McVitie; 9. Life in Parkhurst; 11. Life in Gartree; and 13. Just a Thought. Ron nominally authors: 4. The Killing of George Cornell; 5. The Truth about the Mad Axman (i.e. Frank Mitchell); 7. The Trial and the Traitors; 10. Life in Broadmoor ... 'Without my drugs I go mad'; and 12. Poetry and Painting.

According to a later edition, Ron Kray died in Broadmoor Hospital in 1995, while Reg was released on compassionate grounds in 2000, only to die of cancer in that October. Reg Kray approached their ghostwriter Dinenage to help them tell their story, because Reggie had admired the journalist's Television South's sports and documentary programmes.

Notes


    Related Research Articles

    <i>The Surgeon of Crowthorne</i>

    The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words is a book by Simon Winchester that was first published in England in 1998. It was retitled The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary in the United States and Canada.

    Kray twins British criminals

    Ronald "Ronnie" Kray and Reginald "Reggie" Kray, twin brothers, were British criminals, the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s. With their gang, known as "The Firm", the Krays were involved in murder, armed robbery, arson, protection rackets and assaults.

    "Piranha Brothers" is a Monty Python sketch that was first seen in the first episode of the second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Originally broadcast on television on 15 September 1970, the premise is a BBC current affairs documentary programme, inexplicably entitled Ethel the Frog, retrospectively covering the exploits of the brothers Doug and Dinsdale Piranha. The sociopathic criminals employed a combination of "violence and sarcasm" to intimidate the London underworld and bring the city to its knees. Dinsdale is also described as being afraid of "Spiny Norman", a gigantic imaginary hedgehog whose reported size varied on Dinsdale's mood. The threat of Norman affected Dinsdale so severely that it led Dinsdale to launch a nuclear weapon attack at a hangar at Luton International Airport on 22 February 1966. During the end of the sketch, which also ends the episode, the creature is apparently revealed as real and appearing beside various English landmarks as the credits roll.

    Broadmoor Hospital Hospital in Berkshire, England

    Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire. The hospital's catchment area consists of four National Health Service regions: London, Eastern, South East and South West. It is managed by the West London NHS Trust.

    Fred Dinenage

    Frederick Edgar Dinenage MBE is an English television presenter, broadcaster and author. He has had a TV career spanning more than 50 years.

    Jack D. McVitie, more commonly known as Jack the Hat, was an English criminal from London of the 1950s–1960s. He is posthumously known for triggering the imprisonment and downfall of the Kray twins. He had acted as an enforcer and hitman with links to the Krays' gang, The Firm, and was murdered by Reggie Kray in 1967.

    Royston Henry Shaw, also known as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw, Roy "Mean Machine" Shaw and Roy West, real estate investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a criminal and Category A prisoner. During the 1970s–1980s, Shaw was active in the criminal underworld of London and was frequently associated with the Kray twins and Harry Knowlden. Shaw is best remembered today for his career as a fighter on the unlicensed boxing scene, becoming an arch-rival of Lenny McLean.

    Bernard O'Mahoney is an English author, security detail, and former soldier. After taking control of security at a nightclub he became associated with Tony Tucker, one of three men who were later murdered as they sat in a Range Rover.

    George Cornell

    George Cornell was an English criminal and member of the Richardson Gang, who were scrap metal dealers and criminals. He was shot and killed by Ronnie Kray at the Blind Beggar public house in Whitechapel in the East End of London. Kray was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder three years later and remained in Broadmoor Hospital until he died of a heart attack in 1995.

    <i>Watchman</i> (novel)

    Watchman is a 1988 novel written by Ian Rankin, and is one of the author's earliest works. Originally published in 1988, it was reissued with a new introduction by Rankin in 2004.

    For the Wales international footballer see Andrew Crofts (footballer)

    <i>Born Fighter</i>

    Born Fighter is an autobiographical book written by Reginald Kray. In 1969 he and his twin brother Ronnie Kray received life sentences for the murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie. First published in London in 1990 in hardback by Century and paperback in 1991 by subsidiary Arrow Books.

    <i>My Story</i> (Kray book)

    My Story is an autobiographical book written by Ronnie Kray. He, along with his twin brother Reggie, were said to be some of the most feared gangsters in British history.

    The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories is the long-running "main" Nancy Drew series, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels — plus 34 revised stories — that were published between 1930 and 2003 under the banner; Grosset & Dunlap published the first 56, and 34 revised stories, while Simon & Schuster published the series beginning with volume 57.

    <i>Coast to Coast</i> (British TV series)

    Coast to Coast was the flagship regional news programme produced by TVS, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between January 1982 and December 1992.

    Stephen Richards is an author writing in the self-help genre. The first book he wrote in 1998 was in the true crime genre for Mirage Publishing. He has co-written a number of books with others, but now concentrates on writing in the mind, body, spirit subjects of Cosmic Ordering and mind power.

    <i>Trump: The Art of the Deal</i> Book by Donald Trump and Tony Schwartz

    Trump: The Art of the Deal is a 1987 book credited to Donald J. Trump and journalist Tony Schwartz. Part memoir and part business-advice book, it was the first book credited to Trump, and helped to make him a "household name". It reached number 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, stayed there for 13 weeks, and altogether held a position on the list for 48 weeks. The book received additional attention during Trump's 2016 campaign for the presidency of the United States. Trump cited it as one of his proudest accomplishments and his second-favorite book after the Bible.

    Frank Samuel Mitchell, also known as "The Mad Axeman", was an English criminal and friend of the Kray twins.

    <i>Legend</i> (2015 film) 2015 film by Brian Helgeland

    Legend is a 2015 British-French biographical crime thriller film written and directed by American director Brian Helgeland. It is adapted from John Pearson's book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, which deals with their career and the relationship that bound them together, and follows their gruesome career to life imprisonment in 1969.

    Leonard Ernest "Nipper" Read, QPM was a British police officer and boxing administrator.