We all know about the Hells Angels: toughs on Harleys terrorizing the law-abiding; wild brawls and wild sex; drugs and cruelty, beatings, and even murder. But nobody really knows what it's like to be an Angel except an Angel. In this classic of Hells Angels literature, to be read alongside the works of Hunter S. Thompson and Sonny Barger, GeorgeWethern - for many years the vice president of the Oakland Chapter-tells it like it is.

Until he found himself in reluctant service to the courts, Wethern was the quintessential Angel. Oneof the West Coast's top drug dealers, he was a man who loved bikes, fights, women, and drugs; a man who knew the deepest secrets of Angel life. Arrested, strung out, in despair, he bought a precarious freedom by testifying in major trials against Angels members - and then disappeared into the witness protection program.

A Wayward Angel is a powerful book, a not-for-the-squeamish portrait of the drug scene and the alienation of modern life in late-twentieth-century California. We witness killings, million-dollar drug deals, "picnics" that are nothing short of orgies, and the sometimes bizarre inner workings of the biker club. This is a story uniquely American. And it is a terrifying tale - because it's real.