Jumpin’ Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock'n'Roll Underworld

A fascinating quest for one of London’s legendary characters

‘REVELATORY’ - DAILY TELEGRAPH ***** ‘FASCINATING’ - OBSERVER ‘ENGROSSING’ - DAILY MAIL

‘You’ll worry at your hunger to keep on reading, but you won’t be able to stop’ - GUARDIAN, Book of the Year

David Litvinoff was one of the great mythic characters of ‘60s London.

Flitting between the worlds of music, art and crime, he exerted a hidden influence that helped create the Krays twins’ legend, connected the Rolling Stones with London’s dark side, shaped the plot of classic film Performance - and saw him immortalised in a portrait by Lucian Freud.

Litvinoff’s determination to live without trace means that his life has always eluded biographers, until now. Intent on unravelling the enigma of Litvinoff, Keiron Pim conducted 100 interviews over five years, speaking to Eric Clapton and Marianne Faithfull, James Fox and ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser. The result is an extraordinary feat of research that traces a rogue’s progress amongst aristocrats, gangsters and rock stars.