Jim Baxter was one of the greatest footballers Scotland has ever produced. But his career was over by the time he reached 30 and in 2001 he died at the early age of 61, the victim of a lifestyle that ultimately destroyed him.

Slim Jim Baxter charts the great man''s rollercoaster years, his emergence at Ibrox as a world-class midfield player and the rapid decline as he pressed the self-destruct button and blew away his life as a footballer. Team-mates and friends tell how Baxter lived by his own rules and how he finally faced up to death with a courage and dignity which impressed all who saw him in his last few tragic months.

Above all, Ken Gallacher''s biography is the story of an extraordinary footballer who was touched by genius, and of a young man from the Fife coal-fields who could not always cope with the fame his skills brought him.