Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel Thief - Softcover

Hamilton, Duncan

3.58

74 ratings by Goodreads

9780099537953: Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel Thief

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099537958 ISBN 13: 9780099537953

Publisher: Windmill, 2012

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17 October 1898. An impossibly daring jewellery heist aboard a train at Paris's Gare du Nord station captures the attention of the world. Who would have dared to pull off such a feat? Award-winning writer Duncan Hamilton reveals the true story of Harry the Valet, the notorious crook who was the scourge of Victorian London. Harry conned and stole his way into high society, living a life of excess in London's best hotels and hang-outs. Dressed in bespoke suits and handmade shoes, Harry outwitted Scotland Yard with his trademark guile and panache. With dozens of pseudonyms, no fixed address and a knowledge of his city that allowed him to hide in its shadows, Harry seemed almost invisible. Until, blinded by love, he carried out the robbery that would prove his downfall.

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About the Author:

Duncan Hamilton is the author of Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year for 2007. In 2009, he was awarded the William Hill again, for Harold Larwood, as well as winning the prestigious Wisden Book of the Year for 2009 and Biography of the Year at the 2010 British Sports Book Awards. He lives in the Yorkshire Dales.

Review:

"That anecdote, one of many in a pacey book by the moonlighting sports historian Duncan Hamilton, illustrates well the absurdities of etiquette in Victorian Britain that made Harry's colourful career possible." -- Brian Schofield * Sunday Times * "Backed by newspaper accounts of the day, Duncan Hamilton's biography is colourful, entertaining and well-researched." * Manchester Evening News * "[Hamilton] tells a lively tale with verve and panache that do justice to his incorrigible subject" * Country Life * "The astonishing true story of the most notorious jewel theif in Victorian London, this has all the hallmarks of the finest detective novel, but has romance at its heart and a love stort that endured to the very end of Harry's life." * Western Morning News *

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