Birmingham's Front Line offers a fascinating and unique insight into police culture and the problems faced by those on the thin blue line during a tumultuous time in Britain’s second city.

Containing accounts from the author and his former colleagues of robberies, rapes and murders, these true stories will shock and stun as the author reveals the tools and tactics used to combat the violence, bribery and general disregard of law and order encountered every day as the police fought to bring these criminals to justice.

Covering the period from 1976 to 1988, Birmingham city centre represented a microcosm of criminal activity throughout the United Kingdom in this period – at one end of the spectrum, hardened armed robbers out to make a fast and brutal buck; at the other, the punks, bikers and skinheads just looking for the cheap thrill of mindless violence. Hooliganism was rife, and the notorious Zulu Warriors were always sure to make their presence felt.

Relationships with informants are described, and the author gives an inside view of the world of criminal intelligence, as well as explaining how, after much strife, police and criminals learnt to co-exist in the Midlands.

• An inside look at policing Britain's second city
• First-hand accounts of crime from the 1970s to 1980s
• Mike Leyton's 'Tracking the Hooligans' is currently the number one bestselling book in Amazon's football fans section.