Dark City

There was more to wartime London than stiff upper-lips and rousing choruses of ‘Roll out the Barrel’. There was crime and plenty of it in the time of Blackouts, Blitz and Bloodshed, and it is chronicled here in this lively and accessible history . . .

Criminals hunted their prey without fear of reprisal. Many operated under the cover of darkness, emerging when the city sank into the oblivion of its nightly blackout; others simply struck whenever opportunity presented itself. At a time when Londoners were pulling together in the face of terrible adversity, there were an increasing number of looters, racketeers, terrorists, criminal gangs, prostitutes, rapists and murderers stalking the bomb-ravaged, panic-ridden streets, and this book chronicles the rapid rise of crime throughout this turbulent period.