Review: Britain's Most Prolific Burglar by Martyn R Beardsley

Synopsis: Harry Edward Vickers, aka Flannelfoot, was possibly Britain’s most successful ever burglar. Not financially - he stole cash and low-value items (even, bizarrely, false teeth!). The success was in his hundreds of burglaries spread over many years without being caught. The lives of career criminals are invariably dotted with prison sentences, but thanks to his caution and cunning, Flannelfoot operated night after night, year after year with an impunity which embarrassed the police.

In the twenties and thirties, Londers were deserting the overcrowded capital for the burgeoning suburbs of ‘Metroland’. Flannelfoot was equally attracted to these areas, and one of his hallmarks was to steal a bicycle at the scene of his last break-in of the night and cycle to the nearest tube station.

Burglars and burglaries are never glamorous, but one reason why the Flannelfoot saga engendered fascination more than fear is that he was never confrontational, never violent, and in fact so stealthy that few ever saw him.

His one-man crime epidemic led to Scotland Yard assembling a team more used to solving murders than the plundering of gas meters. After a lengthy and painstaking investigation, a carefully planned night-time surveillance operation involving several teams of officers led to the sensational capture of Flannelfoot.

Flannelfoot routinely features in crime anthologies and was the subject of a feature film, but this is the first full biography of the man who became a legend in his own lifetime.

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Whilst the premise appealed to me greatly, the narrative seemed to take as long as Flannelfoot's career of crime. Much could have been left out and thus condensed to make it a more "readable" story. Less is best in this instance.

Beardsley adds into the narrative, the careers of two of the more prominent detectives who would have much to contribute to Flannelfoot's criminal demise - these being Walter Hambrook (who I was more interested in) and Thomas Thompson.

The narrative itself fluctuates between that of Flannelfoot (Henry Vickers aka Henry Williams), until it converges on events that would see Flannelfoot brought to justice. Beardsley finishes off with a final assessment on those involved in the case, discusses the spate of copy-cat crimes, and Flannelfoot as portrayed in the media.

As I mentioned, there was some things that could easily have been left out to keep the flow of the narrative going - I dislike it when I feel that the author is "forced" to reach a set page number a book in order for publication. I personally would rather read 100 pages of actual content than 200 or more pages on waffle.

Truce-crime fans will enjoy reading this anyway.