About the Author
Carl Chinn is Professor of Community History at the University of Birmingham and Director of BirminghamLives at South Birmingham College.
Works by Carl Chinn
Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs: The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller (2019) 92 copies
The Real Peaky Blinders: Billy Kimber, the Birmingham Gang and the Racecourse Wars of the 1920s (2014) 20 copies
Peaky Blinders: The Legacy - The real story of Britain’s most notorious 1920s gangs: The follow-up to the Sunday… (2020) 12 copies
Poverty Amidst Prosperity: The Urban Poor in England, 1834-1914 (New Frontiers in History) (1995) 7 copies
Our Brum (Volume 1) 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Birmingham, England, UK
- Occupations
- professor (community history|University of Birmingham)
author
writer
historian - Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (Member, 2001)
Members
Reviews
A good look at gangs and gangsterism on the Birmingham area from Slogging gangs and calms in 1880’s through to the Peaky blinders , Theo extinction and the race course gangs. Intriguing but at times it reads like someone’s sociology essay. It gets better as it goes on and the last third in particular is interesting. Links to the BBC Peaky blinders series have been highlighted which makes things easier for those who have seen the tv series for a while. Really a must only for enthusiasts
This is a short booklet of just over 100pages with lots of photos, giving a short history of the Cadburys and their development of chocolate.
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 28
- Members
- 217
- Popularity
- #102,846
- Rating
- 3.2
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 50
- Languages
- 3
Chinn wastes no time disposing of the idea of the peaky blinders shown in the TV series. They were only around in the pre World War 1 era and were only called that because they wore flat caps, not because they blinded people with razors. They were not an organised gang, but an alliance of a few petty criminals in different neighbourhoods of Birmingham.
The apogee of the Birmingham gang wars came after WW1, when soldiers returned home with few prospects, no money and a much better idea of how to organise and discipline themselves. Led by Billy Kimber, they infested racecourses, stealing from patrons, and running protection scams against bookies. Their influence extended to other parts of the country, including London, where they met a serious threat from rivals for their trade.
There are a few familiar names in this book for viewers of the series, such as Kimber and Alfie Solomon, but their real stories are quite different. In that sense, the title of this book is not right, as the people Chinn writes about had nothing much to do with the peaky blinders.
I found this an absorbing read, but I was disappointed that there were no accompanying photos, which I always enjoy seeing in a social history. There are photos of these people out there, and this book could have been much improved by including some of them.… (more)