Hello everyone, Gabriel here. I'm fond of WW2 in both fiction and non-fiction. Movies, comics, novels, documentaries, even PBS's Mystery! set during WW2 appeals to me greatly. I am aspiring pulpwriter and I was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction with sites and books on information about black marketeers during WW2 England? I've been working on something in which the hero is dispatched to England to investigate a black market ring but runs afoul of the local crime syndicate run by an eccentric by the name of the Raven. I'd appreciate any nudges in the right direction!
Wished that I could help you, but I have an empty bucket on that one. Maybe some of the other Rogues can help you.
Although I am vehemently opposed to what the production of this thing stands for, let alone the casting of george cloonytic, I can't help but wonder if you got this idea from The Good German.....
Hi there, and welcome. I suggest you read Jack Higgin's "The Eagle Has Flown" for the ambiance. Not a great novel, but the underworld ambiance seems ok.
Sorry Wilcongr but no. It has nothing to do with Clooney in the very least. The only good things he's done is O Brother Where Art Thou and the Ocean's # series. Aside from that, I can barely tolerate him. The ideas of black marketeers comes from: a book I read by Jack Higgins. "The Eagle has Flown." In it, the protagonist deals with backstabbing gangsters. various biographies I've read about gangsters in 1960s UK who started of as bootleggers in WW2. and various DC Comic books set during the "Golden Age" when mystery men took on gangsters.
I can't be a lot of help here, NYCpulpwriter....the UK black marketeers were widely known as 'Spivs'. I don't know of any books on the subject ( which isn't to say that there aren't any....) and it's possible that the whole subject has been overlooked as it doesn't fit very well with the 'Business as usual - Britain can take it' image of the WWII Home Front.....
Actually this helps a great deal. I hadn't heard of that term "spiv" before! It's a start! Thanks a lot!
The word 'Spiv' was very widely used here in WWII and was well-known to my parents' generation. Oddly, the exact origin of the word isn't known ; it is believed to be a Romany/Gypsy word for someone who picks things up in the street. The classic image of the 'Spiv' was of a nattily-dressed guy wearing a trilby hat, and always with a 'Clark Gable'-type moustache. The character 'Private Walker' in the old BBCTV series 'Dads Army' was an amalgam of all the 'Spiv' characteristics.
Martin, you kick much ass. If you only knew how much you helped. I found several books online on the Guttenberg Project (press?) about gangsters in the 60s who cut their teeth during WW2. After some digging, I've found that Spiv was taken from VIPs since apparently the black marketeers considered themselves important enough to spit in the eye of the law.
Pulpfiction, you might also want to do some looking into the mob gangs that were rampant here in the USA and mobsters such as: Al Capone--because some of their syndicates might habe reached England and no telling what you might find out. I know there is some things out there about that in particular--but I don't know anything exact.
The book you want to read is "An Underworld at War: Spivs, Deserters, Racketeers and Civilians in the Second World War " by Donald Thomas (2004 ISBN: 0719563402). It's probably the most thorough book on crime during the war.
