Thursday, August 8, 2019

Top ten (UK) true crime books

Duncan Campbell has been writing about crime for nearly half a century. He was the crime correspondent of the Guardian and chairman of the Crime Reporters’ Association. He has written extensively on the subject of crime for various publications, including Guardian, Observer, Esquire, New Statesman, London Review of Books, Radio Times and Oldie.

His books on crime include: That Was Business, This Is Personal; A Stranger and Afraid; If It Bleeds; We’ll All Be Murdered in Our Beds! The Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain; and Underworld: The Definitive History of Britain’s Organised Crime.

At the Guardian he tagged ten (UK centric) examples of the "best writing by and about criminals and cops, villains and victims," including:
The Profession of Violence by John Pearson

The best book of the more than 50 volumes so far on the Kray twins. Pearson was granted remarkable access to Ronnie and Reggie at the same time as they were busy posing for David Bailey portraits. Hard to imagine that any modern-day gangsters will be quite as open with any would-be biographer.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue