The Train Robbers by Piers Paul Read - 1978

London: Hutchinson / W.H. Allen, 1978. First Australian edition. Hardcover, Boards.. Original, Good Condition/very good, Brodart Cover. On Thursday 8 August, 1963, fifteen masked men stopped the night mail train from Glasgow to London and robbed it of £2,500,000. It was called the crime of the century, and the thieves were pursued relentlessly by Scotland Yard until half the gang were brought to court and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
The story did not end there. First one, then another escaped from prison and fled abroad: the audacity of the original robbery was compounded by these impudent jail-breaks, and to many all over the world the Great Train Robbers actually became folk heroes.
Thirteen years later most of the gang were released on parole: only two remained in prison, and Ronnie Biggs was still a fugitive in Brazil. Now, most having served their sentences, they combined together to tell for the first time their complete, exclusive and sensational story; and Piers Paul Read, the author of Alive, agreed to write it.
This extraordinary book is the result. It contains not only a thrilling account of the robbery itself, but an anatomy of the two gangs that combined to pull it off; the role played by each individual; the tension between them; the meticulous planning and the measure of luck. It probes deeply into the London underworld - the corruption of policemen, the intimidation of witnesses, the bribing of jurors, the murder of informers, the miscarriage of justice. The story is fast and exciting but is told with a ruthless detachment, and details the tragic consequences for the wives, girl-friends and children of the robbers.
The final chapter reveals in a totally unexpected way how long prison sentences have failed to reform the most notorious criminals of our generation.

Piers Paul Read is the author of Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors which was highly acclaimed on publication and has since become an international bestseller. On reading it Graham Greene said: ‘It is inconceivable to me that this story could have been better told. The concluding chapters in particular are a masterpiece of narrative.’ The author has also written many novels, two of which have won awards. His most recent, Polonaise, was published in 1976.
Piers Paul Read was born in 1941, brought up in Yorkshire and educated at Ampleforth and Cambridge. In addition to two years spent in Germany and one in America he has travelled extensively in the Far East and South America. He now lives in Yorkshire with his family and combines writing with occasional journalism and plays for radio and television."


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