The long firm - Jake Arnott

London. The 1960s. The capital is swinging, but underneath the boomtown there's a dark underbelly. Meet Harry Starks: club owner, racketeer, porn king, sociology graduate and keen Judy Garland fan. Harry's business is fronting violence with rough charm and cheap glamour; putting the frighteners on, performing menace while trying to desperately trying to jump the counter into legitimacy.

Five narratives chart Harry's rise, fall, and eventual escape. Each one interlocks into an epic testimony where high life meets low life and real and imaginary characters spar with each other as the seedy end of the swinging sixties is revealed in ruthless verisimilitude.

Five characters tell five tales that combine in an extraordinary narrative that is both an explosively paced thriller and brilliantly imagined sociological and topographical portrait of sixties London.