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Odd Man Out: My Life on the Loose and the Truth about the Great Train Robbery
Sometimes only the most hackneyed cliché will do: there's no getting away from it - Ronald Biggs is a legend in his own lifetime. A member of the gang who carried out the Great Train Robbery, he has come to personify the notoriety, excitement and drama of what was the biggest and most daring crime in British history. No one has run more rings round Scotland Yard , nor eluded more bounty hunters. Today he lives in Rio de Janeiro as a law-abiding citizen but a fugitive from British justice.
Just after three o'clock on the morning of Thursday 8 August 1963, on a stretch of railway track in Buckinghamshire, sixteen men ambushed the Glasgow-to-London mail train. Their total haul that night was £2,631,784 - worth over £26 million at today's rates.
Having made a successful getaway from the scene of the crime, Biggs - along with most of the other gang members - was subsequently captured; he received a thirty-year jail sentence. But within fifteen months he had made a spectacular escape from Wandsworth Prison, and he has been on the loose ever since.
In 'Odd Man Out' Ronald Biggs speaks openly about the robbery and his years on the run, and for the first time divulges just how he has eluded justice for so long. He also talks about his life now, in Brazil, where he remains a hero of popular mythology, courted by the music and film industries, the media and the whole nation. His account is both revealing and highly entertaining; here is the tale of a man who is truly the quintessential lovable rogue of our time - and perhaps all time. A rogue who remains, thirty years on, the odd man out.
Just after three o'clock on the morning of Thursday 8 August 1963, on a stretch of railway track in Buckinghamshire, sixteen men ambushed the Glasgow-to-London mail train. Their total haul that night was £2,631,784 - worth over £26 million at today's rates.
Having made a successful getaway from the scene of the crime, Biggs - along with most of the other gang members - was subsequently captured; he received a thirty-year jail sentence. But within fifteen months he had made a spectacular escape from Wandsworth Prison, and he has been on the loose ever since.
In 'Odd Man Out' Ronald Biggs speaks openly about the robbery and his years on the run, and for the first time divulges just how he has eluded justice for so long. He also talks about his life now, in Brazil, where he remains a hero of popular mythology, courted by the music and film industries, the media and the whole nation. His account is both revealing and highly entertaining; here is the tale of a man who is truly the quintessential lovable rogue of our time - and perhaps all time. A rogue who remains, thirty years on, the odd man out.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published January 20, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 13, 2025
One critic who looked at the Ronnie Biggs situation was surprised that others sometimes tended to change elements of his story to make it more earthy and he 'failed to understand why people can change a perfectly good yarn for some hokum' for, as he wrote, 'After all, it comes from the horse's mouth. He was there.'
I can fully understand him expressing that opinion for there is certainly no need to change anything in this story for Ronnie Biggs tells it in his own way and one imagines, for he pulls no punches and hides nothing, he does tell it how it was. As such it does make for compelling reading, particularly, if like myself, one is interested in the Great Train Robbery. This took place on 8 August 1963, less than a month after I had gone to work in London and as such it was front page news that took my fancy.
Biggs begins by explaining how he got into the gang that robbed the train; he was approached because he knew Buster Edwards well, through time spent in jail together for Biggs was by then a criminal, albeit in a much smaller way. He then recounts the robbery itself in graphic detail and how Leatherslade Farm provided a hideout but only on a temporary basis, for the police began searching nearby farmhouses very quickly.
The gang left in a hurry, split up and went their own separate ways. But the clean up at Leatherslade was not done as it should have been and fingerprints gave away many members of the gang. Consequently they were gradually picked up and held for trial. Biggs was one of the later ones captured before they all went for trial together. However, due to a slip up in prosecuting Biggs, the lawyers mentioned his previous record inadvertently, he had to be re-tried so the sentences were held over until his trial was finished. And it was a massive 30 years for most of them.
Imprisoned, Biggs decided that he did not want to spend 30 years in jail so he decided to make escape plans. Wandsworth prison was not good enough to hold him and, with some other inmates, he escaped in July 1965. Life on the run had begun.
Initially he was hidden in and around London but them it was Bognor, Antwerp, Paris and finally, after seeing details of Australia in a travel brochure, Sydney. He spent some good times in Sydney but then word got out that he was in that city and the police arrived. But he was one step ahead of them and by the time they discovered his whereabouts he was on his way to Rio de Janeiro.
As Mr Haynes, a friend had very generously lent him his passport, which Biggs adapted, he enjoyed life in Rio and met a Brazilian girl who very quickly became pregnant. And it was just as well she did because when Slipper of the Yard arrived to arrest Biggs and take him home, the authorities disagreed because he was to become the father of a Brazilian child. Thus he remained and became a celebrity with all the Brits visiting Rio wanting to spend time with him.
A couple of kidnap attempts were made and at one point Biggs found himself in Barbados, and in one of their jails, before the Barbadian government decided that they were prepared to repatriate him to Brazil. The good life, therefore, continued.
His son, Mike Biggs, became famous as a member of the Balao Magico group and Biggs went on to enjoy further celebrity status and even did an interview with Slipper of the Yard for one of the newspapers after Slipper had retired. 'Odd Man Out' finishes with him continuing to enjoy life in Rio.
Biggs eventually returned to Britain on 7 May 2001 when he was immediately arrested and imprisoned. He was eventually released on 30 July 2009 and died on 18 December 2013, aged 84. Whilst we appreciate that he was part of the Great Train Robbery gang, his autobiography is nevertheless an enjoyable read.
13 June 2025
I read this again (forgetting I had already read it some years ago!) and while it was a quite enjoyable read, it did taper off somewhat towards the end and I think perhaps I have been rather generous in my review above. I would assess it as a three-star read now.
I can fully understand him expressing that opinion for there is certainly no need to change anything in this story for Ronnie Biggs tells it in his own way and one imagines, for he pulls no punches and hides nothing, he does tell it how it was. As such it does make for compelling reading, particularly, if like myself, one is interested in the Great Train Robbery. This took place on 8 August 1963, less than a month after I had gone to work in London and as such it was front page news that took my fancy.
Biggs begins by explaining how he got into the gang that robbed the train; he was approached because he knew Buster Edwards well, through time spent in jail together for Biggs was by then a criminal, albeit in a much smaller way. He then recounts the robbery itself in graphic detail and how Leatherslade Farm provided a hideout but only on a temporary basis, for the police began searching nearby farmhouses very quickly.
The gang left in a hurry, split up and went their own separate ways. But the clean up at Leatherslade was not done as it should have been and fingerprints gave away many members of the gang. Consequently they were gradually picked up and held for trial. Biggs was one of the later ones captured before they all went for trial together. However, due to a slip up in prosecuting Biggs, the lawyers mentioned his previous record inadvertently, he had to be re-tried so the sentences were held over until his trial was finished. And it was a massive 30 years for most of them.
Imprisoned, Biggs decided that he did not want to spend 30 years in jail so he decided to make escape plans. Wandsworth prison was not good enough to hold him and, with some other inmates, he escaped in July 1965. Life on the run had begun.
Initially he was hidden in and around London but them it was Bognor, Antwerp, Paris and finally, after seeing details of Australia in a travel brochure, Sydney. He spent some good times in Sydney but then word got out that he was in that city and the police arrived. But he was one step ahead of them and by the time they discovered his whereabouts he was on his way to Rio de Janeiro.
As Mr Haynes, a friend had very generously lent him his passport, which Biggs adapted, he enjoyed life in Rio and met a Brazilian girl who very quickly became pregnant. And it was just as well she did because when Slipper of the Yard arrived to arrest Biggs and take him home, the authorities disagreed because he was to become the father of a Brazilian child. Thus he remained and became a celebrity with all the Brits visiting Rio wanting to spend time with him.
A couple of kidnap attempts were made and at one point Biggs found himself in Barbados, and in one of their jails, before the Barbadian government decided that they were prepared to repatriate him to Brazil. The good life, therefore, continued.
His son, Mike Biggs, became famous as a member of the Balao Magico group and Biggs went on to enjoy further celebrity status and even did an interview with Slipper of the Yard for one of the newspapers after Slipper had retired. 'Odd Man Out' finishes with him continuing to enjoy life in Rio.
Biggs eventually returned to Britain on 7 May 2001 when he was immediately arrested and imprisoned. He was eventually released on 30 July 2009 and died on 18 December 2013, aged 84. Whilst we appreciate that he was part of the Great Train Robbery gang, his autobiography is nevertheless an enjoyable read.
13 June 2025
I read this again (forgetting I had already read it some years ago!) and while it was a quite enjoyable read, it did taper off somewhat towards the end and I think perhaps I have been rather generous in my review above. I would assess it as a three-star read now.
April 25, 2013
Did not read the whole book, rather just dipped into chapters here and there. I got the book out of the library because I enjoyed the Mrs Biggs series on TV and wanted to know more about the events. I found the writing style awkward and too much "I", "I"' "I" - interestingly had the same reaction to Tony Blair's autobio. I know it is an auto bio but there is a way of writing it without this style.
May 19, 2022
Great story. Really straightened some erroneous ideas I had about what had really happened. Very entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews