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

by Donald Serrell Thomas

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Research, Historical

528 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2005

About the author

aka Francis Selwyn

Donald Serrell Thomas is an English author of (primarily) Victorian-era historical, crime and detective fiction, as well as books on factual crime and criminals, in particular several academic books on the history of crime in London. He has written a number of biographies, two volumes of poetry, and has also edited volumes of poetry by John Dryden and the Pre-Raphaelites.

Reviews

[Bill Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A survey style history that traces the evolution of 20th century British crime and its root causes. The focus is primarily on the Post World War II era through the 1990s, although there are references to earlier crimes and criminals and the social elements that spawned them. Social behavior and attitude changes and the response of the authorities to them form the core of Thomas' book. Understanding why the events occurred overshadows the crimes and criminals themselves. This is not a detailed retelling of events, but a view toward explaining how crime in Britain came to be more organized, more brutal, drug-fueled and perversely enough, more celebrated. This is not a True Crime book that revels in the sensationalist aspects of events, but a more documentary and clinical analysis of underlying causes and effects. That said, the book is not at all a dry academic tome, as Thomas writes with a clear, involving and at times dramatic prose. The crimes of "villains" and police, as well as the ditherings and contributory behaviors of politicians are colorfully and objectively told. The efforts of civilians who played key roles in criminal apprehension and the evolution of police "grasses" are not neglected.
The book includes notes and an index.

[Jill H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting an in-depth look into the social issues which caused Britain's crime rate to soar during the time period covered by this book. Instead, the author included hundreds of individual crimes ranging from stealing ration books to smash and grab. Although there was some indication of the societal and economic reasons for the increased crime rate, there was too much minutiae. Not much information was given about the Mods, the Rockers, the notorious crooks Jack Spot and Billy Hill or the Teddy Boys. He did reserve a few pages about the insane twin brothers, the Krays but for the most part the narrative dragged on and on. It was not my cup of tea.

[amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay! New favorite non-fiction! I never knew how extensive the black market was after WWII, nylon thefts and "larking" and scams and murders everywhere. It has anecdotes that were so well researched it was like the author was there, and all the explaining was exceptionally well done, interesting and informative. It's not as theoretical as Sapiens, although it's obvious why, but it's just as entertaining and it's so fun to read.

[Tammy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will let one paragraph from the New York Times review speak for why I gave up on this book:

"Unburdened by analysis and lightly sprinkled with a few statistics, 'Villains’ Paradise' makes better sense as pop history than as a serious study of crime. There are more ideas in the eight paragraphs of Orwell’s 'Decline of the English Murder' than in the 500 pages of Mr. Thomas’s earnest but disorganized and hugely redundant history, a recitation of shoot-outs, stick-ups and melees that simply does not know when to quit."

Add stress to "unburdened by analysis," "disorganized," and "hugely redundant." One of these would be forgivable; two, problematic but not necessarily fatal. But all three? Simply no.