It's A Blag: The 'dark art' of Police humour

by Michael Layton, Stephen Burrows

‘Welcome to an unseen world – unless you are a ‘cop’ of course. These are genuine stories of the tricks that police officers play on each other, plus a dose of funny police stories as a bonus. You won’t believe the extraordinary lengths some officers will go to, in order to ‘get one over’ a colleague, or the quick thinking and wit to make the most of a situation that presents itself. Police and graveyards, police and mortuaries, the ‘character building of Probationary Constables, the Florida job that wasn’t, the magic bank card, the ‘art of spinning’, the ‘wubbery’ chow mein – they are all in here. Mention the words ‘blag’ and ‘blaggers’, and most people of a certain age will think of the slang word used regularly in ‘The Sweeney’ to describe armed robbers, who attacked security vehicles with sawn-off shotguns and pick-axe handles in the 1970/80s. In this little book, however, you will discover a very different police meaning - the ‘dark humour’ deployed by police officers to play tricks on their colleagues. The ability to ‘wind-up’ staff was, and still is, seen as a desirable skill, funny, sometimes ‘well over the top’ and occasionally outrageously inappropriate. ‘Blags’ played on colleagues, some almost legendary, are enshrined within local policing memory and culture, and in this book the authors offer a light-hearted peek inside a little-known sub-culture. Not meant to be taken too seriously, it shows that even within the institution of the police service there is plenty of room for humour, and that the police are only human!’Michael Layton and Stephen Burrows, both Birmingham authors, are retired police officers with more than seventy years’ experience of CID and uniform policing in a wide range of roles and forces between them.

99 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 23, 2018

Reviews

[Janet Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this is what they get up to. 😁

This is a very entertaining little book and is a great way to fill a couple of hours. Policing must be a very stressful job and it comes as no surprise to find that tension breakers abound in the quieter hours. I'm sure, now this is out, another volume will follow as new stories come in from serving and retired officers who think they can beat the tales here. I look forward to volume 2 very much.

[Steve Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

All are good stories, the Drug Squad “old bill” story is true. I was with the officer concerned! Excellent reminders.

[Donna McDermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok

Not as funny as I expected unfortunately but some laugh out loud memories. Surprised they got away with a lot of it though.