THEN: Once upon a time in south London, three young men without a future decide to invent their own. The Sixties are starting to swing and Jimmy, John and Billy want it all: the clothes, the pills, the music and the women. Through drugs, protection and armed robbery, they start building their crime empire; everything they've always dreamed about is within their grasp. But then Billy changes sides and becomes a cop...and finds that his days are numbered. NOW: Billy's son, Mark, is working for John Jenner and waiting for the day when his father's killer gets out of prison. It's any time now and Mark is determined to be there when the doors swing open. An epic novel spanning forty years of love, life and villainy, Guns of Brixton is a major tour de force from an author at the peak of his powers.