Many pro wrestlers have been told their life would make for a captivating novel – and many have written autobiographies with a healthy dose of fiction – but this is quite the twist on the concept of “inspired by a true story”.

Long time British wrestling fans who skip the blurb will quickly recognise that both the character of Jonny Arnold and the details of his career and personal life and incredibly reminiscent of Adrian Street. That makes much more sense once you realise the novel’s author AD Stranik is in fact Street’s son.

Given Street documented his life in extensive detail over no fewer than seven volumes of autobiography, it would require a different approach to cover this time period, the initial years after he moved to London. Stranik writes what he dubs “Brit Grit” crime drama, with the less salubrious side of London in the swinging sixties as much a character as Arnold himself.

There’s plenty for wrestling fans here, capturing elements such as the Joint Promotions vs Independents setup, the bloodier and more violent aspects of non-televised shows, and the genuine aspects of competition between wrestlers that went far beyond who was booked to win a public match.

The sections covering Arnold’s involvement in the criminal underworld are certainly colorful, while the dialogue and pacing is extremely in-your-face and dynamic. The main weaknesses are that in the latter stages the cast of criminal characters occasionally gets confusing, while the ending of the book doesn’t feel like a dramatic conclusion or resolution and instead a more arbitrary stopping off point, albeit one that’s a major turning point for Arnold’s career.

The second volume will be set three years later, when Arnold’s version on the “Exotic” Adrian Street character will presumably see him an established star, so it will be interesting to see how smoothly the book jumps forward in the narrative. As with this initial instalment, it’s likely to be an engaging experience for the reader, particularly those who think they know where the story is going from having read Street’s own accounts, only to find the line between fiction and reality blurred in a way of which he would no doubt have appreciated.

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