The Guv'nor: The Autobiography of Lenny McLean

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I have to say I was astonished to learn that he was only 49 when he passed, anytime I saw pictures of him I always thought he was around 20 years older, but then no wonder, looking at the game he was involved in. In this autobiography he tells of how the mafia flew him to New York to take on their greatest bare-knuckle boxer in a multi-million pound illicit challenge bout.

But Lenny was also a warm, huge-hearted grizzly bear of a man, whose main weakness was an overwhelming desire to put the welfare of his mates ahead of his own well-being. What a colourful, crazy life he led and although he was a tough guy, he sounded like he had good morals (I guess it’s what you say when it’s your own book though 🤷‍♀️). Thanks to the conversations between Lenny and his 'book man' Peter Gerrard, the parts of his life that were not revealed before are now within these pages to be enjoyed and treasured by generations of his admirers. In their final bout, McLean ended the feud with a brutal first-round knockout at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London in September 1978. However, as Kelly explains, unfortunately her father’s moods were not just drink-related, but stemmed from his unhappy and abusive childhood and possibly from undiagnosed mental health issues as well.Lenny’s quest begins in a second-hard car yard and takes him to Epsom Downs and various backrooms and waste grounds before he ascends to the fights with Roy Shaw. As well as being a friend of Lenny McLean, he co-wrote Lenny's autobiography, The Guv'nor - the No1 bestselling hardback biography of 1998.

We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts. He was uneducated and a product of his upbringing, traumatised by what he’d been through, and probably had mental health problems as a result of all that. John, although McLean by streetfighting standards was a very hard man, he would be easily beaten by a pro boxer of any class. In this extraordinary autobiography he tells how the Mafie flew him to New Yok to take on their greatest bare-knuckle boxer in a multi-million pound illicit challenge bout. Biography: Lenny McLean, also known as "The Guv'nor," was a British boxer known for being "the hardest man in Britain.

It’s a vivid portrait of growing up in the East End and dealing with the legacy of a tough East London childhood. The drama film My Name Is Lenny was released in 2017, featuring Australian actor Josh Helman in the title role, and Michael Bisping as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw.

When she recovered, she gave Lenny an ultimatum to stop drinking or lose his family, which seemed to have worked. In October 2017, The Guv'nor Revealed – The Untold Story of Lenny McLean by Thomas and Lee Wortley was released.By the time you finish the book, you will have a very clear picture of how resourcefully Kelly has lived her life in spite of the difficult hand she was dealt. McLean's pugilist reputation began in the East End of London in the late 1960s and was sustained through to the late 1980s.

McLean immediately protested his innocence, and claimed the police had a vendetta against him because of his association with the Krays. After playing a brief unbilled cameo as a ringside spectator in the drama film The Krays (1990), McLean played gangster Eddie Davies in ITV's customs drama The Knock and had a small part as a police chief in The Fifth Element (1997). He’d been a wild kid imprisoned for armed robbery and once he’d got inside, his depthless rage at authority meant that he couldn’t get out. The boys were always polite, and they loved their Mum’ was the general tone of the comments you would hear about them – one acquaintance of my mother’s used to claim his parents were ‘butler and maid’ to the Krays, which gave me a slightly surreal and no doubt highly inaccurate picture of their home life.

Only the loss to Roy was in The Guv’nor, and that Lenny blamed on a pair of boxing gloves that kept springing open on him. So Lenny had his myths and Roy had his, and no doubt so did Cliff Field and Johnny Waldron and everyone else. if you are any way interested in the krays era or the older gangsters of England then I highly recommend this book. Read more the beginning of the end of the old Cockney way of life and interest in his story has only increased since his passing, inspiring documentaries as well as a feature film, My Name is Lenny.