"an absorbing book that adds up to rather more than one life ... There are excellent descriptions here of street demos and wild parties that have the authentic note of the times ... [John Williams] is diligent and often relishes his interviews with surviving relatives, friends and radicals..." Times "The life of Black Power leader Michael X is worth recalling even without its grisly ending...this biography tells a story that covers the great changes in London between the mid-Fifties and early Seventies" Nicholas Blincoe, Telegraph "This spakling biography is a treat from start to finish ... A portrait of the times he lived in as much as the man himself." Sainsbury's Magazine "The truth about this complex and contradictory man ... has finally been brought to light" Dazed and Confused "[An] engrossing biography. Michael X does a remarkable job of contextualising for a younger generation that may scarcely have heard of him the long-gone world of someone who once laid claim to being "the most famous black man in Britain"... a less skilful biographer might have settled for painting Michael x as a colourful trickster and imposter who got his just deserts. The reality, as Williams shows, is much more complex ...That this is also a story told with compassion makes it all the more readable" The Independent