London's Underworld: Three Centuries of Vice and Crime - Couverture rigide

Linnane, Fergus

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 186105548X ISBN 13 : 9781861055484

Editeur : Robson Books Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

London's Underworld is the superbly evocative survey of 300 years of organised crime in the capital. Full of vivid detail and characters, it is an examination of the underside of the world's richest city as it evolved from the extreme violence of the early eighteenth century to the vastly more complex and lucrative, but no less violent, gangland of today. Fergus Linnane takes us on the nightmarish last journeys of condemned criminals to execution. We follow the ingenious criminals who carried out the first great train robbery in 1854 and the gang that robbed the Bank of England. We enter death-trap eighteenth century prisons, described as a 'prototype of hell'. We walk the crowded streets of Victorian London with its swarms of prostitutes, its magsmen and garrotters. We enter low drinking dens where prostitutes and their murderous accomplices practise their arts. We see the rise and fall of the interwar racecourse gangs and the battle for control of the West End, which bequeathed us much of the structure of present-day gangland. This story has the power to disturb and even disgust, but it is endlessly fascinating.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Fergus Linnane combined a long career in journalism in London with a fascinated interest in the city's various underworlds. Since retiring as executive editor of the European four years ago, he has written London's Underworld and the forthcoming Sin City: A History of 1000 Years of Prostitution in the Capital.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Robson Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 186105548X
• ISBN 13: 9781861055484
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 288
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible