Author will launch book in Kenilworth telling his fascinating story of being the son of a real life former crime boss

"My dad was both flawed and brilliant at the same time", author Jason Wilson says when describing his late father and former crime boss Anthony Spencer.

Jason Wilson's book The Old Man and Me, which he will launch in Kenilworth next week, tells the story of his relationship with his late father Anthony Spencer, a Coventry man who led a life of heavy involvement in organised crime over decades from the 1970s onwards.

Jason will be signing copies of the book at Kenilworth Books on Saturday March 3 between 11am and 1pm.

In the 1970s, Anthony was a businessman at first who owned several gyms and a company selling gas cookers and turning over a proft of about £1 million each year.

But Jason said he was wasteful with his money and he turned to crime and served time for bank robbery.

In the 1980s he was a counterfeiter and by the 1990s he started running a European Class B drugs ring selling cannabis and amphetamines and, at one point, was one of the most wanted men by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

He served a total of 25 years in prison.

Jason worked for his father as a driver over the years.

But he moved away from any involvement with his father's life of crime and began producing true crime graphic novels.

He since achieved a psychology degree and has spent five years working as a mental health worker.

Jason started writing the book after Antony died of lung cancer in 2015 aged 66.

Antony was not a smoker and Jason said it's believed the disease was caused as a result of the fragments of a bullet left in his father's body after he was shot in Amsterdam in 2001.

Jason said: "He mainly managed to avoid violence, which people are surprised about and was better known for his business skills.

"But he definitely became more hardened by his time in prison.

"I'd always hoped he would go back to being a legitimate businessman but he just didn't have the patience for it and he had spent that much time in prison by then he just didn't see a way of going back."

The Old Man and Me is available at various book sellers.