Neil Basu - former Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police - retired as the most senior officer of colour in the UK, dedicated to a service that has a problem with race and, according to the Casey Review, remains institutionally racist. 

As a mixed-race detective, he stuck with it through bombings, murders, kidnaps, extortion and during his time running counter terrorism, working closely with MI5 to foil 29 plots against Britain. 

Neil shares eye-opening and, at times, uncomfortable stories from his new book Turmoil, which he describes as a love letter to policing - a vocation which defined him for decades. It's a deeply personal account of what it was like to serve for the biggest police force in the UK and the toll it ultimately took on his career, family and mind.    

Neil Basu photographed by Antonio Olmos at the Old Bailey