BOOK AND PODCAST REVIEWS - NON-FICTION

Billy Hill: Godfather of London (2008) Wensley Clarkson   Notorious: The Immortal Legend of the Kray Twins (2010) John George Pearson Peaky Blinders: The Aftermath - The Real Story Behind the Next Generation of Gangsters (2021) Carl Chinn   I have a reasonable library on crime, organised crime rather than the individual evil-doer though I have a few of those as well. These three books give us a general picture of the history of organised crime in Britain, largely but not exclusively in London. I will start in the middle of the story with the weakest book just to set the scene. Clarkson's Billy Hill is a pot boiler but anything that helps us understand the nature of the human condition has some value. This story of one of London's major gang lords does just this - despite itself. It is a weakly written book for the true crime market which seems to take villains' own tales at face value, over-relies on secondary evidence, fails to maintain continuity and gives little so...

Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (1992) Peter H. Marshall   Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction (2004) Colin Ward   The Coming Insurrection (2007) The Invisible Committee   Peter Marshall's Demanding the Impossible is a substantial and worthy account of the history of anarchism, largely built around review chapters of prominent figures and historical reviews of anarchism in action. It takes a broad view by including writers and thinkers who might better or equally be considered liberal or libertarian, although Marshall is always at pains to show their differences from classical anarchist thought. It has to be said that it can be a little dull at times. There is also a lack of a sustained overview, something that would give us a better idea of what it all may mean. It was also written in or around 1991/2 so the 'action' (such as it is) takes place at one of the low points in anarchist history - a quarter of a century after the collapse of the st...