Keeping the Balls in the Air

After a highly successful career in the City of London Police, Alan Francis moved seamlessly into the realm of security, working for Eric and Julia Morley''s Mecca leisure empire. But much of his working life was a juggling act - hence the title - for, as a keen judoka, Alan also organised and hosted martial arts tournaments, and put karate firmly in the public eye via television coverage.As a police officer, he had run-ins with a huge variety of characters: the National Front, Dr Chad Varah, a ''gentleman'' peeping Tom, a corpse hanging under Blackfriars Bridge... to name but a few. Which of these presented the greatest challenge is left to the reader to decide, but Francis survived the attentions of the Luftwaffe and IRA to tell us his ''Copper''s Tale'' - and what a tale it is too!