Crime and Punishment

In 1951 the Festival of Britain marks a new golden age of hope and prosperity for the country. Things are certainly looking up for the criminal elite who run the East End.

For Jack, a draft-dodger with aspirations to be a champion boxer, there's easy money to be made for providing a bit of muscle. Meanwhile his sister Kath must keep secret the fact that she killed their father to protect her son, Brian, from the abuse she experienced as a child. Brian is so traumatised by witnessing this event that the complex union of violence and sexuality will shape his character for life.

As the years go by and disillusion sets in, successive Labour and Tory governments aren't able to stop the rot. Younger, nastier criminals like the Kray twins and the Richardson brothers begin to carve out their own criminal empires and crush all resistance. Brutalised and embittered by years of failure and imprisonment, Jack decides to make a stand. The stage is set for one big war.

Crime and Punishment is the first volume in a two-part epic, and follows the characters' lives up until the accession of Thatcher. The second volume will trace the dramatic changes in criminal society that reflected the wider social upheaval of the times, right up until the present day.

“"For readers who can think of no more delicious treat than a London underworld saga of murder and mayhem . . . Newman knows all the moves and lands narrative punch after punch . .”

'For readers who can think of no more delicious treat than a London underworld saga of murder and mayhem... Newman knows all the moves and lands narrative punch after punch... Bring on the sequel - soon.' Independent. Independent
'A Sopranos-meets-Eastenders saga that consumes lowlife and highlife alike… an unashamedly unselfconscious bath in a wholly English underworld' The Times. The Times

Gordon Newman is a writer and television producer. In the 1970s, he created the British television show, Law and Order, and in more recent years, Judge John Deed and New Street Law. He is married and lives in London.

Haunted by the murder of his grandfather when he was six, Brian Oldman holds a terrible secret that he must keep in fear of his life. But there is a more disturbing secret he has yet to discover as he plunges into the criminal underworld of London in the 1950s, where gangs are engaged in savage battles over territory. Brian's uncle Jack, a boxer who's dodging National Service, finds opportunities to make money by providing a bit of muscle as he reaches for the World Light Heavyweight title. Stopped in his title hopes by the Kray twins, he's determined to destroy them. Spanning three decades, Crime and Punishment follows the lives of one family against the backdrop of a revolution in crime, as the underworld extends its influence to the very heart of the establishment.

In 1951 the Festival of Britain marks a new golden age of hope and prosperity for the country. Things are certainly looking up for the criminal elite who run the East End. For Jack, a draft-dodger with aspirations to be a champion boxer, there's easy money to be made for providing a bit of muscle. Meanwhile his sister Kath must keep secret the fact that she killed their father to protect her son, Brian, from the abuse she experienced as a child. Brian is so traumatised by witnessing this event that the complex union of violence and sexuality will shape his character for life. As the years go by and disillusion sets in, successive Labour and Tory governments aren't able to stop the rot. Younger, nastier criminals like the Kray twins and the Richardson brothers begin to carve out their own criminal empires and crush all resistance. Brutalised and embittered by years of failure and imprisonment, Jack decides to make a stand. The stage is set for one big war. Crime and Punishment is the first volume in a two-part epic, and follows the characters' lives up until the accession of Thatcher. The second volume will trace the dramatic changes in criminal society that reflected the wider social upheaval of the times, right up until the present day.

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