Gentlemen & Blackguards: Gambling Mania and the Plot to Steal the Derby of 1844 - Hardcover

Foulkes, Nicholas

9780297844594: Gentlemen & Blackguards: Gambling Mania and the Plot to Steal the Derby of 1844

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297844598 ISBN 13: 9780297844594

Publisher: Orion Publishing, 2010

In the early 19th century, gambling was a grave social ill—largely uncontrolled and corrupt. The 1830s saw the institution of the Poor Law, the abolition of slavery, the regulation of child labor, the birth of the police force, and the widening of parliamentary representation. But, as far as gambling was concerned, the beginning of 1844 saw things much as they had been since the 18th century: games of faro, hazard, whist, and roulette could be played in houses around the West End; while racing was self regulated by the Jockey Club and a vaguely defined sense of honor. Almost exclusively aristocratic in tone, racing was, in the days before football, the chief national sporting obsession. However, the popularity of gambling and the turf was at odds with the increasingly regulated tempo of life in the 1840s. Vociferous moralists began to inveigh against the vice. The government was on a mission to clean up, if not eradicate, gambling in Britain and Britain's premier race, the Derby, was put on public trial. The Derby of 1844 was expected to be a two-horse race between Ugly Buck and Ratan, owned respectively by the intriguing characters, John Gully, a social-climbing former prize-fighter, and his great rival, William Crockford, the club owner. The race itself was full of drama, not least when it became apparent that Ratan and Ugly Buck had both been doped. Nick Foulkes brilliantly takes Frith's narrative canvas "Derby Day" as the inspiration for a gripping story. There are strong characters, the tension of class rivalries, the drama of the race and the trial, as well as the opportunity to use the gambling of the time as a lens through which to view the wider social change of the period.

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About the Author:

Formerly associate editor of the Evening Standard's ES magazine, Nicholas Foulkes writes regularly for Country Life, the Financial Times, and the Mail on Sunday's "Night and Day."

Review:

"smartly told. an absorbing glimpse into the paddock where what we know as 'Victorianism' took its first tentative steps" -- DJ Taylor FINANCIAL TIMES "Foulkes manages in this book to be sports writer, crime writer and historian with equal facility." -- Nick Pitt SUNDAY TIMES "utterly readable. Anyone remotely interested in racing will love this book" -- John McEntee DAILY MAIL "Foulkes whips up a colourful broad-brush portrait of a time when, in his own words, 'gentlemen condescended to race with, and be cheated by, blackguards'" -- Miranda Seymour EVENING STANDARD "The story of their audacious plot and the personalities who unmasked it is beautifully told" -- Jamie Reid HOW TO SPEND IT, FINANCIAL TIMES "Foulkes tells his essential story with brio and relish" -- Nick Clee THE LADY "a ripsnorting account of the beastliness that took place when inveterate, aristocratic gamblers tried to stitch up one another" -- Dan Jones THE TIMES "elegantly written, supremely entertaining" -- Tim Barber CITY AM "Compelling slice of social history forms backdrop to the most crooked race ever run" THE RACING POST "The Queen Mother would have adored Nick Foulkes' book... terribly engaging stuff" SPEAR'S "Foulkes's prose is a delight. He is the paladin of the bon mot and his book is exquisite." THE FIELD "Foulkes' wonderful prose is not only fair; it is also elegant, erudite and - like this book itself - outstandingly entertaining." -- Catherine Nixey THE TABLET "Foulkes has written a vivid account of the events surrounding the race that finally led to the sport being cleaned up - the 1844 Derby." THE OLDIE "(An) impressively researched book...Foulkes weaves in a number of tangenital histories: the rise of the professional bookie; the history of Tattersall's horse market at the Hyde Park Corner...and the life of William Crockford, founder of the eponymous casino." -- Matthew Bell LITERARY REVIEW "There are so many colourful characters in Nicholas Foulkes's GENTLEMEN AND BLACKGUARDS that Dickens would have spread them over six novels." **** -- David Robson MAIL ON SUNDAY "Nicholas Foulkes' book is a carefully researched story of money, skulduggery and sporting obsession and will appeal to sportsman and historian alike." SHOOTING GAZETTE "Nick Foulkes' colourful account of gambling in 19th-century England." -- Dylan Jones GQ "Foulkes paints a flamboyant portrait of the society of the day and of a pivotal moment in British racing history" GOOD BOOK GUIDE "Herein is a rich assembly of underground rogues and aristocratic sporting men, set at the historical crossroads of the Georgian and Victorian eras" -- Nick Pitt SUNDAY TIMES "Foulkes is a master of the flashing phrase and crafts memorable vignettes of mainly disreputable characters but he is also a shrewd analyst of social change. In his assured telling, the story thunders along with the legs of a dead cert Derby winner" -- Christopher Silvester DAILY EXPRESS

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