{"title":"Books by Neil Root","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780750989206","title":"Crossing the Line of Duty","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Metropolitan Police of the mid-twentieth century, in particular The Flying Squad and Obscene Publications Squad, has been described as ‘the most routinely corrupt organisation in London’.\u003c\/strong\u003e Larger-than-life characters such as Ken Drury and Alfred ‘Wicked Bill’ Moody routinely fraternised with underworld figures, paid off witnesses and struck dodgy deals to get their man – regardless of whether he was innocent or guilty. And the problem went far beyond a couple of ‘bent’ coppers: in the end, fifty officers were prosecuted, while 478 took early retirement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing Metropolitan Police files obtained under Freedom of Information, which have not been accessed since the 1970s, author Neil Root can finally tell the real story of how the Met became systemically corrupt, and how Sir Robert Mark, who became commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1972, finally cleaned it up.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299503124853,"sku":"9780750989206","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780750989206_5a407c26-8c35-47d4-b6de-eb120b36c288.jpg?v=1786014562"},{"product_id":"9781803996646","title":"The Cleveland Street Scandal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 2026\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘A fascinating and meticulously researched look at the biggest gay scandal to hit the headlines until Oscar Wilde. Absolutely a must-read.’\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e – Paul Donnelley, author of \u003cem\u003e501 Most Notorious Crimes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt’s the summer of 1889, and the royal family is in crisis.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is well known in polite society that the Prince of Wales’s eldest son and his aristocratic acolytes are regulars at 19 Cleveland Street – a male brothel in London’s West End. Bad behaviour by the gentry is accepted, but it must stay behind closed doors; they can do what they wish, but the rule that rules all is silence. The Establishment has always closed ranks – a word here and there from powerful people will put rumours swiftly to bed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut not this time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnto this stage walks Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline of Scotland Yard, fresh from leading the disastrous Jack the Ripper investigation the previous year. Now the reputations of men who rule half the world are under threat from a scandal that stretches all the way to the corridors of Buckingham Palace.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306884542837,"sku":"9781803996646","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803996646_c0be72da-0788-46d6-b873-a1c97934804d.jpg?v=1786027310"},{"product_id":"9781910996799","title":"Hart Crane","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309009056117,"sku":"9781910996799","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781910996799.jpg?v=1786029589"},{"product_id":"9781837732784","title":"Slumlord","description":"Peter Rachman dominated housing in post-war London - he owned vast swathes in the west of the city, accumulating huge wealth as his tenants lived in squalor and fear of his hard-nosed collectors and enforcers. He was also at the heart of the city's murky, post-war underworld.In Slumlord, Neil Root pulls back the curtain on this seedy world to paint a portrait of a fascinating man whose path intersected with figures as diverse as Christine Keeler, the glamorous society girl at the heart of the Profumo Scandal, and Michael X, the Black Power activist who later went on to be hanged for double murder.Ruthless in his ambition, Rachman was the archetype of the exploitative landlord, and a man who was willing to use the prejudices of his time in order to maximise profits. He is also a compelling leading man in a story of post-war London, a city where, among the grime and the rubble, fortunes could be made. You just had to hold your nose, abandon your morals and be willing to take from those less fortunate.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369313677685,"sku":"9781837732784","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781837732784_585878c5-c779-4db6-8575-cd0e7ef5255e.jpg?v=1786028170"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-neil-root.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}