ASPIRING authors are often advised to write about what they know. For Roberta Kray, this led to a successful career as a crime novelist. As the widow of one of the most notorious gangsters in the world, she knows a bit about the criminal underworld.
The Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, ruled 1960s London with a brutal combination of violence, protection rackets and murder.
They were jailed for life in 1969 for killing two other gangsters. Ronnie was declared criminally insane and committed to Broadmoor where he died in 1995, aged 62.
The following year, Reggie met Roberta, an English graduate, then 36 years old. He was still in prison and making a film about his late brother. A friend of Roberta had offered to help out with publicity, but had to pull out and asked Roberta if she''d do it.
"I didn't know much about the Krays at all," said Roberta. "When I took on the work, I got a call from Reg asking if I would meet him to discuss the publicity. I was a bit nervous, not so much about him, but the situation of going into a prison.
"It wasn't love at first, no chemistry or flying sparks. I thought he was interesting but what was most fascinating was how he had managed to survive that long in jail without going completely mad."
They were married just over a year later.
Reg asked her to go back to see him and, intrigued, she did. He had been married before in 1965 but his first wife killed herself.
"It was coming up to the anniversary of Ron's death which was going to be traumatic for him and then, just to make matters worse, his nephew Gary died," said Roberta. "I think I was just someone who was there at the right time and right place and he could talk to me.
"It''s very hard to openly express your emotions in prison because you can't afford to show any sign of weakness.You stand or you fall on your reputation so it's easier to talk to someone on the outside.We developed a friendship at first and it grew from there."
She saw a very different side to the man portrayed in films and books.
Roberta said: "He was very complex and very conflicted. On the surface he would play up that image so he''d come across as very confident. But inwardly he was plagued with a lot of self-doubt.
"Personality-wise, we were completely opposite. He was an extrovert, I'm much quieter, more introverted. He was impulsive, I'm cautious. My interest was in him, rather than his reputation."
Building and maintaining a relationship while he was in prison was difficult. But they became close.
"There were endless phone calls, Reg was a talker," said Roberta. "You haven't got the usual dating options. There aren't trips to the pub or cinema.You have to rely on pure communication. Lots of letters, lots of phone calls. No sex of course.
"There are always people who say it can't be a real relationship if there's no sexual intimacy, but today there is too much emphasis on the physical. It's easy to get swept away by intense passion and six weeks later it can all be gone. I guess if you get to know each other more slowly, you build more solid foundations. "
They were given no private time after their wedding, but did sleep together later. Meanwhile, Roberta's family and friends were confused at her new relationship. "I was fairly surprised myself," she said. "It's not what any mother wants for her daughter, but at the same time they accepted I was old enough to make my own decisions."
They were only finally able to be together when Reg was dying from cancer. Released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, he died a month later with Roberta at his side. Aged 66, he had spent 32 years, almost half his life, in jail.
Grieving for him, she went through the official papers from his time inside, his medical records and experiences, and wrote a book, Reg Kray: A Man Apart.
"It was very hard, but it was a way of holding on to him and to tell the story of the terrible experiences he did have inside," she said. "The prison system is very different now. It was a lot more brutal and secretive when he was inside. His first 12 years were horrific."
Somehow she managed to reconcile the man she loved with the dangerous, violent killer whose life she was now researching in great detail.
"You just have to come to terms with it," Roberta said. "You can't dismiss it, but at the same time this is a man who, when I met him, was in his 28th year in prison. So this was the man he'd become.
"I think he had certainly changed. I'm not saying he was an utterly reformed character. He accepted he had chosen that way of life, and yes, of course he had regrets. But he accepted society wanted retribution and he had to pay the price."
With the book finished, she couldn't bear going back to a nine-to-five job and began writing crime fiction.
"They say you should write about what you know and while I don't have much personal experience of crime, I certainly know about the consequences," she said.
"People have got this idea that it was all very glamorous but basically it's just a really nasty, horrible world."
Now 50, Roberta lives in Norwich where she's working on her fifth novel. It's almost a decade since Reggie died, she's not yet allowed herself to love again.
"I tend to write about women who stumble into unfamiliar territory, how they get dragged into things and how they cope with that," she said. "When Reggie died, it was so sudden. He had not been feeling well but suddenly he was in hospital and then 10 weeks later he was dead. That's very hard to come to terms with and you do feel cheated of time you might have had together.
"I do miss him very much and maybe because it ended so painfully, I can't bear going there again. But never say never."
Strong Women by Roberta Kray is published by Sphere priced £19.99.
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