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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
London is a city that thrives on crime and the myths of crime, as its violent history and the colourful portrayal of criminals in fiction, from Defoe to Dickens, attest. London's Underworld examines the murky underside of the capital, surveying three centuries of vice and crime and a variety of perilous underworlds.
Fergus Linnane's writing is full of vivid detail as he describes the city's underworld characters, such as the loathed, murderous eighteeneth-century bounty hunter Jonathan Wild, the Italian Sabini gang which dominated London in the early twentieth century, and the more recent Billy Hill, Jack Spot, Frankie Fraser, Kray twins and Adams family.
London's Underworld takes us on the nightmareish last journeys of condemned prisoners to the gallows of Tyburn. We enter death-trap eighteenth-century prisons, one of which the novelist Henry Fielding described as a "prototype of hell". We walk the crowded streets of Victorian London with its swarms of prostitutes and follow the ingenious villains who carried out the first great train robbery in 1854. We see the rise and fall of the interwar racecourse gangs and the bloody battle for control of the West End. This fascinating book, containing 25 images, illustrates how crime in the capital has evolved from the extreme violence of the early eighteenth century to the vastly more complex and lucrative, but no less brutal, gangland of today.
I bought this on a whim whilst perusing the British Museum book shop and I'm very glad that I did because it's a fascinating book. Linnane has made a great deal of effort to give you a feel for the time in which the criminal world was operating, and this is a wise decision as it does effect the way in which society viewed them. For example, the fact that Mollie Houses (gay brothels) were allowed to exist without comment until the late 18th century was an entirely new fact to me as was the fact that prostitution was incredibly common during World War II as women saw it as a fast and easy way to make money - I definitely had no idea that Hyde Park was basically full of people shagging.
The main issue that I had was the fact that there is actually v. little information regarding crime in the latter half of the 19th century (which I mention only because it's a period that I'm particularly interested in) and surprisingly, absolutely no mention of Jack the Ripper. In addition, I found the sections on crime in the 20th century (notably when discussing Jack Spot, the Sabini gang and Billy Hill) to be a little confusing as Linnane interrelates the sections together (to be fair, because they were operating at the same time) but then goes back and forwards in their story, which meant that I was constantly having to skip back to make sure I'd got them all straight in my head. As an additional picky point, there were some real howler typos within the text which was a little disappointing and says that the editors need to improve their proof-reading skills.
The Verdict:
Absolutely fascinating, this is well-researched social history that gives you a lot of food for thought. Linnane not only gives you an idea of the times, but he also succeeds in giving you a sense of the personalities as well. Most definitely worth a look.
London is a city that thrives on crime and the myths of crime, as its violent history and the colourful portrayal of criminals in fiction, from Defoe to Dickens, attest. London's Underworld examines the murky underside of the capital, surveying three centuries of vice and crime and a variety of perilous underworlds.
Fergus Linnane's writing is full of vivid detail as he describes the city's underworld characters, such as the loathed, murderous eighteeneth-century bounty hunter Jonathan Wild, the Italian Sabini gang which dominated London in the early twentieth century, and the more recent Billy Hill, Jack Spot, Frankie Fraser, Kray twins and Adams family.
London's Underworld takes us on the nightmareish last journeys of condemned prisoners to the gallows of Tyburn. We enter death-trap eighteenth-century prisons, one of which the novelist Henry Fielding described as a "prototype of hell". We walk the crowded streets of Victorian London with its swarms of prostitutes and follow the ingenious villains who carried out the first great train robbery in 1854. We see the rise and fall of the interwar racecourse gangs and the bloody battle for control of the West End. This fascinating book, containing 25 images, illustrates how crime in the capital has evolved from the extreme violence of the early eighteenth century to the vastly more complex and lucrative, but no less brutal, gangland of today.
I bought this on a whim whilst perusing the British Museum book shop and I'm very glad that I did because it's a fascinating book. Linnane has made a great deal of effort to give you a feel for the time in which the criminal world was operating, and this is a wise decision as it does effect the way in which society viewed them. For example, the fact that Mollie Houses (gay brothels) were allowed to exist without comment until the late 18th century was an entirely new fact to me as was the fact that prostitution was incredibly common during World War II as women saw it as a fast and easy way to make money - I definitely had no idea that Hyde Park was basically full of people shagging.
The main issue that I had was the fact that there is actually v. little information regarding crime in the latter half of the 19th century (which I mention only because it's a period that I'm particularly interested in) and surprisingly, absolutely no mention of Jack the Ripper. In addition, I found the sections on crime in the 20th century (notably when discussing Jack Spot, the Sabini gang and Billy Hill) to be a little confusing as Linnane interrelates the sections together (to be fair, because they were operating at the same time) but then goes back and forwards in their story, which meant that I was constantly having to skip back to make sure I'd got them all straight in my head. As an additional picky point, there were some real howler typos within the text which was a little disappointing and says that the editors need to improve their proof-reading skills.
The Verdict:
Absolutely fascinating, this is well-researched social history that gives you a lot of food for thought. Linnane not only gives you an idea of the times, but he also succeeds in giving you a sense of the personalities as well. Most definitely worth a look.
