Tough guy's novel idea!

A best-selling true crime author has taken up residence in Bahrain as he completes his latest book in collaboration with one of the UK's most notorious prisoners.

Robin Barratt has moved to the island to be with wife Inna Zabrodskaia, who is managing the new Agent Provocateur store in Moda Mall.

But living on the island won't stop him working on two new books The Mammoth Book of the World's Hardest Men and Respect and Reputation which he is writing with Charles Bronson, often referred to by the British press as the country's most violent prisoner.

Robin, 47, started writing in 2002 having sold his successful security business to security giant Securitas.

He started his working life as a doorman in his hometown of Norwich back in the late 1980s and went on to manage nightclubs before the offer of a six week close protection course with a former SAS team opened the door to the exciting and sometimes dangerous world of body- guarding for the rich, famous and sometimes infamous.

He became both a body- guard and a bodyguard trainer working in some of the world's most volatile countries from Bosnia during the conflict to Nigeria and Russia.

And when he sold his business in 2002 he set about writing what he knew producing his first book Doing the Doors - from Bikers' Bars to Gangland Clubs, My Life as a Doorman.

The book, which tells of a shadowy world of girls, booze, drugs and clubs, became a cult hit and almost required reading for aspiring doormen.

He followed this up with the equally successful Confessions of a Doorman and Bouncers and Bodyguards - Tales from a Twilight World.

The latter saw his first contact with Bronson, who was himself a doorman before embarking on a life of crime.

Bronson was imprisoned for seven years in 1974, aged 19, for a bungled armed robbery at a Post Office in Cheshire, during which he stole just £26.18, around BD15.

His sentence has been repeatedly extended for crimes committed within prison, which include wounding with intent, wounding, criminal damage, grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment, blackmail and threatening to kill.

Since 1974 he has spent just four months and nine days out of custody, most of his jail time has been spent in solitary confinement.

When Robin set out to produce Bouncers and Bodyguards he wrote to Bronson asking him to contribute a story about his own life 'on the doors'. The notorious prisoner agreed and Robin's publisher later suggested they should collaborate on Respect and Reputation.

Robin said: "It's about respect and reputation and the two perspectives of it, on the inside and the outside, including gangsters and the notion of respect in society.

"He writes his contributions freehand and sends them to me and I type them up and work on them and send them back to him for his input.

"He has a somewhat off-the-wall way of expressing himself but, after 30 years in solitary confinement, I guess that's only to be expected and he is an interesting character."

The second project he is currently working on is The Mammoth Book of the World's Hardest Men for the international publisher Constable Robinson.

Robin said: "I'm putting together stories from 35 of the hardest men from across the world, men who have had hard lives and who have become, for want of a better word, hard.

"Some of those involved include Roy Shaw, the famous bare knuckle fighter, Geoff Thompson, a former doorman who's now a Bafta Award winning writer, celebrity body guard Elijah Shaw and Thomas Silverstein, the American equivalent of Bronson.

"Some of them are people I came into contact with through my former work, others I am researching here in Bahrain. I must admit, I've met and dealt with some interesting people over the years, some real characters, they certainly kept things interesting."

Now he is in Bahrain for the foreseeable future having fallen in love with the island when he came to visit his wife in Gudaibiya earlier this year.

He said; "I came out here for a couple of weeks at the end of May and fell in love with the region. Of all the countries I have visited, all over the world, I had never been to the Middle East. It is so different to the UK, so interesting, I couldn't wait to get back here."