The Brutal Truth gives a startling and sensational account of a world far removed from normal, everyday life. It describes Mason's years in a home for young delinquents, his associations with the Kray twins and John McVicar and details his observations on the Great Train Robbery gang. The Brutal Truth treads where no others dare as Mason describes his 'time' in Brixton, Dartmoor, Wandsworth and Strangeways. He portrays his spell in the famous 'E' Wing, where he listened to the footsteps of condemned men waiting to be hanged and details the haunting sound of the gallows trapdoor, banging against the cell wall. It tells the real truth about the penal establishments - the torture and brutality, corruption and injustice, the homosexuality and sadism that pervades the whole system. Some of the stories have never been told before. Some of them could never been told before. People say that truth is stranger than fiction in Eric Mason's case it is definitely so.