CARDIOLOGIST Alistair Hall once said of his friend Jimmy Savile that he was like a pack of cards.

Speaking on the day of Sir Jimmy’s funeral in Leeds last year, Prof Hall said: “Sir Jimmy was a king of spades because he’d worked in the coal mines and survived a serious back injury; king of clubs because he ran nightclubs.

“He was a king of diamonds because he had gold, jewellery and diamonds, but wealth meant nothing to him, and a king of hearts because he was as he appeared – a caring man. He would always find gold in the shadows.”

Prof Hall’s eulogy to his friend is given in full in local journalist Alison Bellamy’s moving authorised biography of one of Yorkshire truest and best-loved characters. It is a lovely tribute to a man who was larger than life in every sense.

In his own 1974 biography As It Happens, Sir Jimmy wrote that there would be little fuss when he died, Bellamy recounts. He wrote: “When I go it will make the national press but there will be no queue to see me, or monument. This suits me because yesterday’s fun should be forgotten in the search for today’s fun.”

How wrong he was in that prediction that there would be no queues. The astonishing scenes in November, 2011 had not been seen since the death of Princess Diana, Bellamy writes.

“Leeds was brought to a standstill as 5,000 mourners filed past his coffin, thousands more lined the streets to see the funeral procession pass by and many, many more stopped work and crammed into factory and office doorways and windows to pay their respects.” Sir Jimmy, Bellamy says, would have loved it – and no doubt he would.

Bellamy’s book covers Sir Jimmy’s life from his early childhood growing up on the backstreets of Leeds as the youngest of seven children to his seven years down the pits, his years as a celebrity DJ and Top of the Pops presenter, his friendships with the Beatles, the Pope, Elvis and the royals, and his tireless charity work.

Bellamy describes herself as a good friend of Sir Jimmy – and she has also interviewed every one of his inner circle, from family and friends to those whose lives he helped.

Despite his larger-than-life screen persona he was, she says, a very private man. The book is packed with photos, memories and fascinating little anecdotes – did you know, for example, that Sir Jimmy had 31 nieces and nephews and that his sister Marjory, an expert in Egyptology, had 14 children? This book brings the man out from behind the legend. A must for fans of this most colourful of Yorkshire characters.