In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

In the early sixties, John Burke was running illegal gambling parties in Belgravia and his friend Bobby McKew was lieutenant to a notorious crime boss. Then, after the sensational court case in which their defence resulted in gambling being legalized, clubs sprang up everywhere, and both could see that there was money to be made. Finally able to tell their story, John and Bobby describe the scam they called ‘the big edge’, an undetectable way to fix the cards. As John says, ‘It was psychologically and mathematically brilliant. Einstein would have been proud of it.’ It was the ultimate con, worth tens of millions of pounds. They stole from everyone – the rich and titled, movie moguls and the ordinary punter.

Evoking London society in the 1950s and 60s, with fantastic characters from legendary safecracker Eddie Chapman and Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds to Ian Fleming and the Maharaja of Baroda, The Hustlers is a gripping account of one of the twentieth century’s most outrageous scams.

Reviews:

• `What is so intriguing is how so many episodes involve the rich, the dodgy, the outright criminal … fit so neatly together to make up this Hogarthian tableau of a generation gone by’ Daily Mail

• Douglas Thompson has uncovered an intriguing con, but more than this, this book offers a fascinating glimpse into a bygone world, a fleeting moment in the history of post-war Britain when chemmy parties took London by storm and toffs were often found to be rubbing shoulders with gangsters. –Daily Express

• Fascinating book…Thompson brings back to life that network of the rich, suave and well-bred who populated the gossip columns for a generation…intriguing. –Daily Mail

• The Author: Douglas Thompson is the bestselling author of more than twenty books. A biographer, broadcaster and international journalist, he is a regular contributor to major newspapers and magazines worldwide. His books, published in a dozen languages, include the television based anthology Hollywood People and top ten biographies. He divides his time between Los Angeles and London.