Chris Mullin's book first came out in 1986 and angered various vested interests at the time, as well as many ordinary, well intentioned people who not unnaturally assumed that the guilty parties had been duly punished. The Birmingham pub bombings were, after all, a bloody (though bungled) business which brought about widespread revulsion everywhere, so pressure was on the police to make quick arrests - which they did. As everyone knows by now, mistaken scientific evidence, by a state analyst who has since been retired, had much to do with the conviction and jailing of the so called Birmingham Six, none of whom were IRA activists although a few had informal contacts with the Irish republican fringe. Mullin, a Labour MP, was assiduous, even relentless, in pursuing the facts and managed to track down crucial interviews mostly in the Republic - with the hard core activists who had been involved. (One of them, the organiser of the whole operation, had become an alcoholic.) He was persistently snubbed and hindered by authority, and attacked quite libellously by sections of the Yellow Press, yet he persevered even when the crucial court appeal against the convictions had failed. His final revelations of police collusion, doctored evidence, invalid confessions, etc., make melancholy reading; but if the original trial was a black mark against British Justice, the final clearing of the six men's names was a very definite vindication of it. And in Chris Mullin himself, we have an example of that specific, radical Leftist social conscience which is an honourable English tradition.
Apparently Poolbeg, which was the only firm prepared to publish his book in paperback, has since sold 60,000 copies. This edition is a fully updated one since much has happened in the case since 1988.