The Blitz of 1940 may have made a nation of heroes, but in the shadows the shelter gangs and looters prowled. The activities of the underworld, extending into a civilian black market and the armed forces, are one of the great untold stories of the Second World War. The profits of civilian racketeering dwarfed the rewards of smash-and-grab or safebreaking, though these continued apace. Professional gangs raided government offices for ration books and underground presses counterfeited petrol and clothing coupons in tens of thousands. The scale of theft in the army was also colossal, with whole consignments of cigarettes, razor-blades and NAAFI stores disappearing. Donald Thomas draws on extensive archive material to tell the extraordinary tale of these less-heroic Britons. The facts he uncovers are often so preposterous that in a novel they would seem unbelievable.

About the Author
An Underworld at War follows Donald Thomas's widely-praised The Victorian Underworld, shortlisted for the Golden Dagger Award. He is the author of seven biographies including Cardigan of Balaclava and his best-selling life of Cochrane: Britannia's Sea Wolf. He is also a respected novelist and has won the Gregory Award for his poems Points of Contact. He was born in Somerset, educated at Queen's College, Taunton and Balliol College, Oxford. He holds a personal chair in the University of Wales, Cardiff.

Reviews
'In this astonishing book Donald Thomas shows, in utterly absorbing detail, just how common ! criminal behaviour was in Britain during the Second World War' -- Sunday Times 'Thomas has excelled himself. His book is mesmerising and is an unputdownable and brilliantly researched page-turner' -- Martin Booth, Sunday Times 'If you thought the home front in WWII was about good citizens being decent and upstanding, think again: it was a racketeer's paradise' -- Time Out 20030601 'Donald Thomas has chronicled one of the last untold stories of the war, and he does so with scholarship as well as humour.' -- Ian Thomson, Spectator 20030601 'Donald Thomas has written a quite enchanting book, magnificently researched, and cleverly and wittily presented. He has produced fresh and dazzling insights in British life of sixty years ago' -- Kevin Myers, Irish Tmes 20030601 'Funny and heartening...his eye for detail is inexhaustible' -- Blake Morrison, The Guardian 20030601 'He has produced not just a historical record of a vital and much under appreciated aspect of that great conflict, but a seminal cultural document' -- Simon Heffer, Literary Review 20030601



Book Information
ISBN 9780719563409
Author Donald Thomas
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint John Murray Publishers Ltd
Publisher John Murray Press
Weight(grams) 342g
Dimensions(mm) 28mm * 127mm * 196mm