One of the Family

Maureen Flanagan, best known by her professional name, Flanagan, is a former actress and model. In her twenties, Maureen was known as the most photographed model in Britain. Her early BBC tv appearances included roles in The Benny Hill Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Dave Allen Show and Only Fools & Horses. Flanagan shot to fame in the Seventies when she became one of the Sun newspaper’s earliest Page Three girls. The Sun’s editorial told readers Flanagan was 21 years old: in fact, she was 30! With a modelling career that continued well into her fifties, Maureen then became established as a celebrity fund raiser and after dinner speaker. She is an expert on London’s East End and the history of the Kray twins, whose family she knew well over many decades.She lives in Hackney, in the heart of the East End, and has one son, JJ, and four grandchildren.

Not that many people saw that side of the Krays, but this chatty, vivacious memoir sheds a strangely intimate light on their baleful legend