Villains' Paradise: Britain's Underworld from the Spivs to the Krays - Hardcover

Praise for An Underworld at War: '"Astonishing ! Thomas has excelled himself. His book is mesmerising and is an unputdownable and brilliantly researched page-turner. An important and riveting study in social history, it also has a very pertinent relevance in the overtaxed, overruled and crime-riddled society that is Britain today.' -- Sunday Times Praise for An Underworld at War": 'This is a wonderful book, the best I have read for ages. It is beautifully written, utterly compelling: almost without fault in every respect. Thomas, who was a boy during the war, understands his metier intimately' -- Literary Review Praise for An Underworld at War": 'Fascinating ! a richly readable and absorbing account' -- Times Higher Education Supplement Praise for An Underworld at War": 'Donald Thomas's fascinating book ... is full of wonderful examples of dishonesty, from the most mundane ... to the shocking' -- Daily Telegraph Praise for The Victorian Underworld": 'The author has a practised eye for the best anecdotes and presents amazing characters' -- The Spectator 'A thorough, clear and entertaining analysis of post-war criminality' -- Marcel Berlins, The Times 'Fascinating ... A serious, well-written book ... Admirably clear-eyed' -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 20050918 'Crime, like the poor, is always with us. Donald Thomas's skill in this book is to put it into its historical context' -- Ray Connolly, Daily Mail 20051028 'An intensely detailed, exhaustively researched and highly readable social history. Or, should one say, anti-social history?' -- Evening Standard 20051017 'A rewarding and utterly necessary read.' -- Clive Aslet, Country Life 20051027 'This is not just another essay in the true crime genre. Thomas has written a very decent piece of 20th century british history...well-written, solidly-researched' -- Sunday Herald 20050925 'This is a serious...social history ! Compelling stories ! This is fresher and more challenging than fiction' -- The Herald 20050910 'For all those readers who enjoy well-researched true crime and narrative-led social history, the latest Donald Thomas is a must for their bookshelves.' -- Gilda O'Neill, author of OUR STREET 20050427

With the war over, the forties and the fifties in Britain have the aura of a golden age. But nostalgia is deceptive: to contemporaries, the battlefront seemed only to have moved closer to home, as anxiety about armed robberies and psychopaths spread. Teenage Teddy Boy razor gangs proliferated and youths casually stabbed each other at dance halls. Newspapers revelled in headlines about the slashing of Jack Spot; Ronnie Biggs and his accomplices prototyped the gang of the future with the famous Great Train Robbery of 1963. Britain had lost the Ashes, exports had nose-dived and all of its secrets had probably been given to the Russians, but when it came to safe-blowing, it led the world.With the narrative sweep and eye for telling detail that was a hallmark of his previous 'underworld' accounts, Donald Thomas chronicles a history we might rather forget, through compelling stories we can't live without.