The Gold

by Neil Forsyth

A true crime story worth its weight in gold

Shortly before 7am on Saturday 26 November 1983, an armed gang burst into the Brink's-Mat security warehouse near London's Heathrow Airport. They expected to find a million pounds in foreign currency. To their surprise, they found gold bullion worth £26 million. Making off with the gold, the gang committed what was at the time the largest robbery in the world, and unwittingly set off an extraordinary, decades-long chain of events.

The Brink's-Mat robbery led to the birth of international large-scale money laundering, provided the dirty money that fuelled the London Docklands property boom, changed British policing, and sparked a series of violent murders that continued until 2015.

As such, the Brink's-Mat job was the most significant robbery of all time, yet its full, epic story has never been told in its entirety.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Crime, Audiobook

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Neil Forsyth was born in Scotland in 1978 and grew up in the much admired city of Dundee. His writing career began in books (a largely forgotten form of communication made famous by Jesus and, separately, Agatha Christie). He has written two novels, Let Them Come Through and San Carlos while Other People’s Money, the true story of the Scottish credit card fraudster Elliot Castro was released in seven countries and is being developed as a feature film.

Forsyth first created Bob Servant in a trilogy of books: Delete This At Your Peril – The Bob Servant Emails, Bob Servant – Hero Of Dundee and Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant. Forsyth wrote a BBC Radio 4 adaptation - The Bob Servant Emails followed by the television series Bob Servant Independent for BBC4.

Forsyth is currently developing sitcoms with the BBC and a show with ABC/DreamWorks for American TV. In 2012, he memorably came third in the Dundee Evening Telegraph’s Spirit of Dundee competition, losing out to television presenter Lorraine Kelly and the Verdant Works Jute Museum.

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars = Don't regret reading it.

I love true crime. I usually stick to serial killers, or other murderers. I decided to branch out and read about a BIG heist. It was interesting, but nothing about it really made me sit up and go "Wow!". The author has pulled much of his story from previous books, magazines, TV, radio, podcast, etc.

If you'd like to read up on this heist, this book will lead you through it. I've never seen the BBC drama created about the heist, so, no idea how it stacks up against that. There are heaps of other books on the heist, too.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read book

I really enjoyed this book, which I read alongside watching the television series which I throughly enjoyed to. Anybody who watched the series and hasn’t read the book, I recommend you do, I’ll be surprised if you don’t like it. I will go as far as to say The Gold is my favourite read of 2023.

[Umaymah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to watch the series

[Hamza · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Brinks-Mat robbery is one of the most notorious robberies in British history. Approximately three tonnes of gold bullion, valued at £26 million (£100 million today), was stolen from a high-security facility near Heathrow Airport. Most of the gold was never recovered; instead, it made its way back into the legitimate market. Therefore, if you have bought any gold jewellery in the UK since 1983, it likely contains traces of the stolen Brinks-Mat gold!

​Neil Forsyth provides a definitive account of the Brinks-Mat story: from the original heist to the complex handling and laundering operations, and the subsequent police investigations and legal drama.

​The level of research conducted by Forsyth is impressive. He consulted a vast quantity of sources, from books and newspapers to television and radio broadcasts. He also secured interviews with members of the investigating police squad, including the detective chief superintendent, as well as an exclusive interview with one of the original robbers.

​My only criticism of the book is that the writing style can seem inconsistent at times. It switches from a fiction-like narrative to a more report-like style, which can be jarring. While I appreciate that it is not always possible to accurately convey information using a narrative style, I would have preferred a more consistent approach.

​Overall though, it is a great read. I recommend it to any true crime fans or to those who have watched the dramatisation and want to learn more about the true events that inspired the series.

[Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

unfortunately it was not that interesting

[David Wasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors claim that this story is about the largest robbery in world history. It involved a lot of persons. At times their movements and financial entanglements are difficult to follow. It's complex but the authors do a good job in moving the narrative along. There is a list of the key people and photographs of some of them.

[Janice Bridger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting particularly about the laundering of the robbery proceeds and how the money grew as did the greed involved. There was 3 tons of gold yet most has disappeared possibly into smelters and then into jewellery. So much money was made that it was put into banks all over the world and used to fund developments like the London docklands. £26 million became something like £57 million.
There is a list at the end of the main people involved but I needed it earlier as I kept getting confused about who was who - not the author’s fault - but some had v similar names eg Parry and Perry!! There was a lot of intimidation going on behind the scenes including of juries and I would have liked to know more about this but I expect that would have made the book much longer.

[David Mather · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating read, full of eye-opening details.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and fascinating

[Hamid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great caper stuff, told mostly through police actions, interviews(, and failings) and book-ended with the crime itself and the aftermath. Page-turning stuff on criminals who were in over their heads, got taken advantage of and many of whom ended up no better for the crime.

Also reminds you just how crap things were in the UK in the 1980s.

[Heather Mackenzie Protheroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating!

[Dean Eastgate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turns out real police investigations are confused, hesitant, full of coincidences and some things never get sorted out. Who knew?

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does a great job to cover the case and it's many complications. This has some great shades of a Coen Brothers movie if you can think of one based in Britain. Only way it happened was because of one weak link at the storage facility. He didn't even know why he went along with it afterward.
Scotland Yard and their prosecutors are so laughably inept in this book though. Scotland Yard continually kept interviewing suspects without a lawyer and it always blew up in their face. The cases went to trial before they had damning evidence that they could have just waited to acquire. The same prosecutor was used in many trials and he kept losing even with the rare times they had solid evidence. I really feel they got as much as the story as there can be found as much of the missing gold is just lost. Very interesting how it was used in building up the dockyards that had been vacant. The hardened gangland criminals add entertainment for how they craftily avoid admitting guilt.

[Robert Ronsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library hoping to be enlightened about some of the events portrayed in the second season of the BBC series about the Brinks-Mat robbery and its aftermath. This book reveals that much of what was on the screen, and portrayed as fact, was made up.
The book sticks to the unvarnished truth and consequently, as life is chaotic, the story was hard to follow. It's all a bit disappointing. Only two of the six perpetrators of the original break-in were successfully prosecuted. This appeared to be due to a mixture of Metropolitan Police ineptitude and corruption. The gold was melted down and 'disappeared' so quickly after the robbery that it was almost impossible to 'follow the money'.
Consequently the book lost its momentum and, about halfway through, (where the second TV series started) it became a knot of tangled lines only a few which led to a prosecution.
Given that the authors were determined to stick to the truth, they always had a alchemist's job of turning this leaden investigation into gold and consequently the result was an unsatisfactory read.

[RDax Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pushed as the tale of the Brinks-Mat heist in its entirety, it is really just a mash-together of other books with a bit of barely covered interviews. Although police corruption gets more than a passing mention, this area is not really investigated, and the police are more or less given a pass under the 'that was what it was like back then' argument (the early 1980s).
I enjoyed the first part of the book, but the latter part became more than just a blur of names, dates and facts. The last chapter written about one of the men imprisoned who disputes many of the tales told was perhaps the best bit but just left me with a feeling that I did not really know the story at all.

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six-part drama serial ‘The Gold’ is easily the best thing the BBC have produced in a decade or more; gripping, intelligent, high-quality drama, perfectly cast and utterly compelling. This accompanying volume, co-authored by series writer Forsyth, is every bit as essential, meticulous in its research and detail without ever losing its narrative through-line no matter how tangled, ambiguous and often jaw-droppingly unbelievable the saga of the Brink’s-Mat robbery is.

[Sean Flatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant non-fiction book on Britain's biggest Gold Robbery Brink Matt

I purchased this book after watching series one of the BBC drama The Gold on iPlayer.
It's so well researched and well written that I couldn't put it down. I remembered this event as a teenager in the mid 1980's and the hunt for the gold and money as well.
Overall a well written non-fiction true story and highly recommended, especially if you watched the TV series. Best wishes Sean

[cariclem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendid research into a fascinating chain of events. Understandably, a bit of a struggle to plough through at times.
Although the perpetrators of the Brink’s-Mat robbery may not have been most pleasant of people, they made a major contribution to our society by generating the funds for the conversion of virtually useless gold bars into the magnificent modern South Bank of the Thames, which includes the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern and other cultural delights.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably two books in a row about 1960s robberies in England was a bit much. In my defense I didn't know that that was what this book was about. I thought it was more gold, less British criminals of old.

Might've been a higher rating if I hadn't just been annoyed out of my mind by Ronnie Biggs. Who was mentioned three times in this book which was kinda fun.

[Matt Dykes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of the Brinks Mat saga. And it is a saga. It spans three decades and goes into accounts of the different investigations and lines of enquiry the investigations took. Very well written and extremely hard to put down. A wonderful companion to the excellent BBC series.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing the BBC drama I felt as though I had to read this!!

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. Still a good read but not as good as the tv show.

[Billyliving Yahoo.Co.Uk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but as non fiction is a bit dry in places.

[PAUL · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on this subject by a country mile.

[Stefan Bowling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest. Quite boring and dragged out in some places. A good documentary read but nothing to write home about.

[Procopius · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m annoyed cause this story is basically quite interesting, it’s just told in an unbelievably boring way.

[Nick Harriss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book. Having watched the dramatization that was shown in 2023, this provides a much greater level of detail and intrigue. Well recommended.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly detailed and highly illuminating look at the robbery, its background and the investigation that followed, placing the whole thing in its historical context too.

The coverage of policing in the 1980s is particularly great - with the fact that police interviews were not routinely taped at the time being a key feature of the story.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad and disappointing tale in many ways.

[Lachie Macquarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brinks Mat.....

You have to concentrate.... Interesting and thought provoking, help was provided for the dispersal of the loot, by the city's big bang.......?!