I read this book some thirty five years ago. It is the biography of a minor criminal in England, who was a person who was totally unrepentant and attempted to blame no one for his choices in life.

It was probably the first book that I read which gave me a picture of life outside that of a normal middle class existence. From that point of view it was a revelation.

One of the interesting things about the book was that it told of a criminal underworld before the spread of drugs. Robbery and theft were purely motivated by commerical considerations rather than by any addiction.

The narrator in the book is a person who despite spending a third of his life in jail is able to tell his story with some ironic detachment and at times the book is hysterically funny. The scene with a social worker from the Salvation Army is particullary amusing.

One of the interesting things in the book was a description of how to do an Armed Robbery. The narrator explains how the best weapon to use is an iron bar. People will often think that they might not be hit by a bullet or that they can overpower their attacker. An iron bar is something which everyone sees as causing harm and will lead to a robbery going ahead smoothly without resistance. One would hardly think of the modern drug filled criminal being able to muster the self possession to think through the crime and the likely outcome as used to happen in the past.

Not a book which fills you with a golden vision of humanity but a readable and interesting book.