I actually knew Gordon Bennett. Needless to say, that wasn’t his real name. He was that rare combination of being a man’s man and devastatingly attractive to women. His blue eyes were constantly in smiling mode and were ever wandering.

He never seemed to work, yet had an enviable lifestyle.  He ‘dealt’ but never tried to consciously ‘sell’. I recollect once saying that I needed new tyres for my MGB. Later that night, he rang me; “Re your wheels, I’ve got you a set of Dunlop’s, less than half price.”I enquired dubiously. “Are they re-treads?”  “No way.” he replied, oozing charm ‘They’ve still got the pimples on.”  Brand new tyres still had rubber pimples when fresh from the mould which disappeared after a few miles.

He was married to an incredibly beautiful girl with red hair. She was a long suffering wife because of those ever wandering eyes.  My ‘Gordon Bennett’ isn’t married but his tv make-up artiste girl-friend the ‘incredibly beautiful’ Ginger Hopkins still puts up with his wandering ways.

The trilogy is a humorous romp through the naughty nineteen seventies with sinister undertones. The action jumps between Spain, the UK and Florida. My villains living in luxury on Thames-side Maidenhead are in cahoots with porn film makers in vibrant Miami. They are all figments of my imagination, although the sequences set in television and film studios (Cue Tape Please Ted) are real enough. The cacophony of young ladies from the voluptuous Rosie via the fascinating Chelsea-ite Pamela to the twins Tammy and Toni (both film star material but will need voice dubbing) all revolve around Constantina, the tragic centre-piece of the trilogy.

Full of adventures, cheeky scams and lots of loving with masses of colourful characters (and sordid events) the three books can be read independent of each other. All the characters are fictional aren’t they?  Well, as Gordon Bennett would say, “You wouldn’t cocoa – they’ve still got the pimples on .

>How the Rich Live