Bloody Valentine

Bloody Valentine is the story of the murder of a young woman called Lynette White in the Cardiff docklands (aka Tiger Bay) on Valentine's Day 1988. It's also the story of the miscarriage of justice that came after, when three black men, 'the Cardiff Three', were wrongly convicted of her murder. It's a brutally frank tale of racism and police corruption, terrible misogynist violence and the grim realities of sex work. It's a book that got so close to the bone that the author was sued for libel by the police and received death threats from a variety of minor characters. It's an indelible portrait of life in the underbelly of Thatcher's Britain. This new edition includes an introduction and afterword bringing the extraordinary, unhappy saga up to date.

John L Williams was born in Cardiff and now lives in London. He's written a dozen books ranging from his Cardiff Trilogy of novels to biographies of characters as diverse as Michael X and Shirley Bassey. He also writes crime fiction under the name John Lincoln. His journalism has appeared everywhere from the NME to the Financial Times. He co-organises the riotous Laugharne Weekend festival in West Wales.