I can imagine that some people might buy this book under the impression that it does indeed tell the inside story of the notorious 'Dirty Squad' of the Metropolitan Police Force in the sixties, which became a bye-word for corruption in the London vice scene around Soho.

If so, they will be disappointed because the story of Mike Hames' time with the Obscene Publications Branch does not begin until chapter 9, after 134 pages of a 303-page book. By this time the 'Dirty Squad' had already been cleaned up.

However, the book is interesting in that firstly it paints a picture of a straightforward career in the Metropolitan Police Force. Mike Hames was born in February 1945. He tells the story of his early years with endearing frankness. His family was patriotic. On return from active service his father joined the Home Guard and the British Legion. His mother was a member of the British Legion Women's Section, while his grandfather held the office of President of the Burnham-on-Crouch Branch. He recalls that a host of other relatives were actively involved in the organisation.

His family was also poor, as he discovered when he passed the eleven-plus exam and gained a place at Colchester Grammar School. Economies had to be made in order to provide the school uniform and all the equipment he required.

He already had a notion that he wanted a job with plenty of adventure. This grew into a determination to become a Scotland Yard Detective. In the sixties there was a Police Cadet system which involved eight months training at Hendon. This is described as being tough, but had the benefit of turning out fearless young people in peak condition. When he returned there later in his career as headmaster, Mike Hames thought things had gone soft, which he regretted. He also regretted the later demise of the cadet system.

There follows a story of moving onwards and upwards through the ranks and around various London Police Stations. One amazing thing is the frequency with which Mike Hames names names in writing about various cases and events. It is also interesting to trace the use of networks and the influence of contacts among police officers as they move around the system.

There is also an underlying theme of the personal cost of serving in the Police Force. The author is presently in his third marriage. He also paints some graphic pictures of the death and injury of colleagues, for example in the Harrods bombing in London.

However, for the purposes of readers of Children, the book becomes of more professional interest when Police concerns started to surface about child pornography and the activities of paedophiles making use of the Internet.

In the early nineteen-nineties the awareness grew that images of children being abused were being distributed by electronic means. Under Mike Hames's leadership the Obscene Publications Branch shifted its focus from the impossible task of controlling the spread of adult pornography to the equally impossible task of the protection of children.

From our viewpoint in 2001 it is scarcely believable that what the author still refers to as the Dirty Squad did not possess a computer in 1990 with which to carry out their on-line investigations of child pornography on the Internet. For some time an officer had to take discs home to view them on his son's computer, while applications for the necessary equipment were processed through police channels.

A lot of the narrative which follows, about the work in which the Branch became involved, is not for those of sensitive disposition. One positive outcome is that after a five-year struggle Mike Hames had the satisfaction of seeing the National Paedophile Register established in 1997. Developments like this do not just happen; it is to the credit of Mike Hames and his colleagues that internet pornography is taken seriously, and the community at large is indebted to them.

Kathleen Lane