Book Synopsis:
Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays … All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, gold smugglers and bank robbers?
Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female crooks from the seventeenth century to the present. From Moll Cutpurse to the Black Boy Alley Ladies, from jewel thief Emily Lawrence to bandit leader Elsie Carey and burglar Zoe Progl, these were charismatic women at the top of their game. But female criminals have long been dismissed as either not ‘real women’ or not ‘real criminals’, and in the process their stories have been lost.
Caitlin Davies unravels the myths, confronts the lies and tracks down modern-day descendants in order to tell the truth about their lives for the first time.
My Review:
Queens Of The Underworld is a fascinating, informative read that I really enjoyed.
Firstly I hadn’t heard of many of the people in this book so found it very interesting to learn more about them. The author has written this book to shine a light on their lives which have previously been overlooked or altered. These are strong women who chose to live outside of what society expected of them and as such experienced some discrimination as people couldn’t believe that women were capable of such crimes. This meant their stories were often altered or adjusted to fit into societal norms, meaning the truth had been lost.
The author dedicates a chapter to each of the female criminals and I enjoyed learning more about their lives. Most of the woman came from poor, abusive backgrounds which was sad to read about and was often their reason for turning to crime. The author does a great job of highlighting their lives while not glorifying their crimes or forgetting about their victims which I thought was very clever.
Overall I thought this was a brilliant read that I will be recommending to all true crime fans. I found the book easy to read as the author had a great writing style and I found the book surprisingly gripping. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author and researching more into the women featured in this book.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book. If you like true crime or non fiction books I highly recommend this book.
About The Author:
Caitlin Davies was born in London in 1964. She spent 12 years in Botswana as a teacher, human rights reporter and newspaper editor, during which she was twice arrested and put on trial. Many of her early books are set in the Okavango Delta, including a critically acclaimed memoir Place of Reeds, described by Hilary Mantel as ‘candid and unsentimental’.
She is fascinated by the buried stories of women from the past, which feature in several of her books – The Ghost of Lily Painter is based on the arrest and execution of two Edwardian baby farmers, while Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World is inspired by the lives of forgotten Victorian aquatic stars.
Her non-fiction books include Taking the Waters: A Swim Around Hampstead Heath, Downstream: a history and celebration of swimming the River Thames, and Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Caitlin’s latest book is Queens of the Underworld, a journey into the lives of female crooks from the 17th century to today, to be published by The History Press in October 2021.
She is a teacher, social historian, and freelance journalist, and was a regular feature writer for The Independent’s education and careers supplement. As a Royal Literary Fund Fellow she has worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the University of Westminster. She is a mentor with StoryBoard, https://www.storyboardwriter.com/, which offers writing help for both fiction and non-fiction.
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