Brynley Heaven (54), of Aslackby, is a former colleague of incumbent mayor, Ken Livingstone, and features in a new biography, Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone.

Brynley was a member of the Young Socialist, 30 years ago, at a time when Mr Livingstone was chairman of the group and says: "I am quoted to good effect in the chapters on Ken Livingstone's early life before fame and infamy.

"Although he is older than me he was in the same branch of the Labour Party youth section in South London in the early 1970s.

"I knew him before he was known to the public at large. He was obviously a leading personality."

Yesterday, as voters took to the polls, Brynley described Mr Livingstone as "a populist" and "a risk-taker" with "a huge personality with a lasting impact on transport in big cities and much else".

He said: "He is a man with faults, like all of us, but someone who showed how it is possible to be both populist and progressive."

In one extract from the book author Andrew Hoskin writes: "Heaven remembers a rather fun and charismatic figure... It was clear that Livingstone had an extraordinary emotional intelligence that was rare in politicians and that he would develop to engage and enchant almost any audience.

"You can imagine the usual rather tedious bill of fare," says Heaven. "There were trade unionists talking about their strikes and so on.

"And then Ken decided he was going to talk about sex and instead of the usual awful meeting, there was standing room only. It was then that Ken's talent as a crowd-puller really hit me."

l Find out more about Brynley Heaven on page 11.