Life and Other Times : My Autobiography

"Life and Other Times" is the long-awaited autobiography of Britain's best-known soap star Leslie Grantham - 'Dirty Den' of East Enders. Written without a ghostwriter, this is a story with more highs and lows than any soap opera. With seering honesty, Leslie recounts his early life, from growing up in a dysfunctional family in Camberwell to his time as a boy soldier in Shropshire and subsequent posting to Germany, a move that led to the murder of a German taxi driver. He tells of the reality of serving a life sentence, where sex and acting provided an exciting escape from the numbing routine of prison life, only to be disowned by his family on his release. Within four busy years of leaving drama school, where he met his future wife, the beautiful Australian actress Jane Laurie, Leslie had joined the cast of the BBC's new soap-opera as the landlord of the Queen Vic, becoming the idol of millions of fans, none more ardent than Princess Diana. But with his past sensationally exposed in the tabloids Leslie became the subject of unprecedented and unrelenting press interest culminating in the notorious internet sting which threatened to destroy both his family and his career. "Life and Other Times" is an enthralling account of one man's struggle against adversity, written with both humour and pain.