THE VICTORIAN UNDERWORLD

Hardback. Through the eyes of its inhabitants, the author portrays the 19th century underworld - one of 'night houses' and cigar divans, of street people like the running-patterer with his news of murder, and entertainers like the Fire-King. The underworld was sheltered by an underclass, united with it in a hatred of the police. In its rookeries and padding-kens, gin shops and taverns, hard by the fashionable West End, thrived thieves and beggars, cheats, forgers and pickpockets, preying on rich and poor alike. The same locals saw the vast growth of prostitution and provoked the white-slave scandals of the 1880s. Career criminals often showed a craftsmanship that would put their descendants to shame. It took true professionals to empty the London-to-Paris mail-train of a quarter of a ton of gold bullion, or remove the modern equivalent of £20million from the Bank of England. In one case conspirators even recruited officers from Scotland Yard. Those who failed at such enterprises found themselves in the convict hulks, where the annual mortality rate might reach 40%, or in the new prisons, their faces masked and identified only by numbers. The author pushes open a door to reveal a world at once both strange and strangely familiar. Illus., Notes and Index. 346pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. With newspaper cutting book review to ffep and a cutting/picture of true crime author Donald Rumbelow conducting a Jack the Ripper tour in the East End of London to fpd o/w Nr. F. in F. protected dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage if shipped overseas.