MY APPRENTICESHIP TO CRIME – by Arthur Harding
ISBN: 978-1-0369-1615-2
The book is centred around the life of hardened villain Arthur Harding who was born in the Old Nichol, a notorious London slum, in 1886. His complete typewritten autobiographical manuscript written when he was in his eighties and by then a reformed and reflective character, is reproduced here in its entirety. It is a window into the mindset of someone from the wrong side of the tracks, a unique insight into the thinking of a person who might otherwise have been written off as a statistic and merely just another ‘Low Life’.
With the worst possible start in the world he grew up in abject poverty in an unstable family background and was from the age of fifteen to become a huge thorn in the side of the East End police for the next twenty five years spending much of that time behind bars convicted of all types of crime from being a suspected person to simple theft, and street robbery with violence against individuals. He was the ringleader in several gang wars in the 1920s around Shoreditch and Bethnal Green. Even though he managed to extricate himself from some charges on account of his legal knowledge and general wiliness, he still served terms of detention in prisons all over the country and was familiar with many correctional facilities where his sentences sometimes included hard labour. Over his career he built up a sense of resentment against the police and against certain police individuals particularly, who he claimed were vindictive towards him.
But he was an anomaly. It is true he was a violent thug and gang leader, but at the same time was possessed of a high degree of intelligence with a good knowledge of the law as well as being widely read.
His education came courtesy of Dr Barnardo’s where he was sent as a small boy. Although he was not an orphan, he was a street urchin whose parents were considered not able to look after him and they readily agreed to it. For them it would be one less mouth to feed – for a time.
The social conditions of the late Victorian era into which he was born are discussed and his background presented as, in his particular case anyway, one of the inevitable causes, of a life of crime.
In that period great store was set on the work of social reformers including Charles Booth who spent a prodigious amount of money and energy in writing about what he found, and compiling the now famous Poverty maps of London where streets were ostensibly accurately identified by a system of colour coding into varying degrees of poverty, which was thought to go hand in hand with commensurate levels of crime.
Arthur Harding’s case has come to the attention of writers in the past, specifically in 1986 when his life story was compiled, not from his manuscript but from a lengthy series of recordings made over a period of years. His story has not gone unnoticed by other writers on social deprivation and crime. The Bishopsgate Institute, who hold Arthur’s original manuscript, did a project on him a few years ago. The institute itself is very near where Arthur operated all those years ago. This is the first time however that his autobiography has been published unedited in its entirety. Arthur in this edition airs his political views as well as his own personal history. Whilst his views might be more controversial today, they were at least sincerely held by him. His philosophy and how he expresses it is of its time.
The compiler of this project, Peter Kurton, came to be interested in Arthur’s story by a quirk of fate. He discovered almost by accident, that, via his grandmother, he was related by blood to Arthur and his name occupies a place on the same family tree. The first part of the book is a commentary on the social conditions of the age and of the area where Arthur was born. The second part is the manuscript itself printed as near as possible to a facsimile. The last section of the book is devoted to the events that sparked the interest and made this book possible. It also presents an opportunity to think about our wider family connections and the odd circumstances that can lead people in one direction or another, and how the most surprising, talented or infamous people can turn up almost unannounced.
520pp A4 size (210mm x 297mm)
Colour and black/white
ROMANTIC ESSEX
ISBN: 0-9536634-2-6
This was originally published in 1901. It is a fascinating insight into the rural life and people of Essex in a bygone age.
Beautifully written by Reginald Beckett, an insurance clerk who travelled out by train to various locations in Essex at weekends. He walked and explored, lodging for the night at inns and spoke to people at length. Then he wrote up his impressions. The book was published in 1901. It must have been popular as a second edition was printed. This edition was discovered by accident and it was considered to be so good, such a gem, that it was re issued by PBK Publishing a few years ago.
The original map which helped would-be explorers to retrace Beckett’s footsteps, has been enlarged and redrawn and the text throughout the book has been reset in the same font, each page is reproduced in facsimile. The whole book is larger than the original and is easier to read. It is illustrated throughout with the original pen and ink drawings of the original editions, supplemented with additional photographs of some of the locations as they are now.
This is a paperback of the very highest quality with sewn sections and strengthened binding, ideal for use in the field for those intrepid enough to retrace Beckett’s journeys. The book content is printed in two colours. 285 pp plus 16 colour plates.
284 pp 210 x 148 A5 Landscape. Section sewn paperback
Double covers. Black type with line drawings and 16 colour plates & 2 colour map.
THE PROMISED LAND – ESCAPE FROM LITHUANIA
ISBN: 978-1-3999-9137-7
In the 1890s one minority ethnic group which arrived on Britain’s shores fleeing from Russian domination, were several thousand Lithuanian Catholics. Few people had even heard of Lithuania then. Peasants there were relentlessly persecuted by their Russian masters. For many the only option was to try to escape to the west. Some went to America getting mining jobs in Pennsylvania or in the meat packing factories of Chicago, but others came to Britain. They formed tight close-knit communities which gave them safety and support in a foreign land.
Those who came to London settled around the docks in Stepney in whatever accommodation they could get, learning the ropes and the language.
The problems which immigrants encounter today were the same then. Leaving all that they knew, including family, and probably never seeing them again, arriving and being dismayed when they found that the streets were not exactly paved with gold. Whilst the air in East London was foggy and dirty, it was fresh in another sense. At least they found a type of freedom.
Learning a new language was not easy. Sometimes the newcomers met resentment when they were overheard speaking in their own language. They were thought to be taking jobs, for lower wages, which British people could have done, or occupying housing, seats on buses or even space on the pavements. It was disheartening to sometimes be made to feel unwelcome.
But the British themselves consist of countless waves of different ethnic groups who have come to these islands over centuries. Some descendants of former immigrants have short memories in that respect, but by and large the British are generally tolerant, friendly and welcoming.
This novel follows the fortunes of one such family from a Lithuanian peasant village caught up against their will in the middle of Napoleon’s Russian war of 1812 and extending through the ages right into the heart of Hackney.
Based on first hand accounts, it is a story which has never been told before in this way. It brings to life the reality of integration and that of later generations.
This story is told by someone who knows, who has spoken to the people who were there or who knew those ancestors who experienced momentous events and most made a signicicant contribution to Britain and therefor world history.
There are many people in Hackney, in London, and in other cities in the wider western world who will identify with this novel.
If they have ever wondered how their ancestors contrived to leave their homelands and travel to an alien country for a better life, then some of the answers are here.
433 pp 138 x 215 mm Portrait. Paperback.
THE PROMISED LAND – Escape from Lithuania (Graphic Novel)
This mainly visual book in comic form has been designed and compiled to be a companion to the predominantly text heavy novel version of the same name shown elsewhere on this site. It can easily be followed by a child, perhaps in conjunction with the novel itself being read by a parent. A good basis for discussion between parent and child based on the plot and the issues arising from it. The book paints a series of graphic pictures over 150 pages of full colour of a little known country and nation.
The story begins in a remote part of Lithuania during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, of which Lithuania was then a province, in 1812. It follows the fortunes of the peasant Kadisius family who are reluctantly caught up in the war. Through the generations the autocratic, cruel Russian Regime continues to persecute Lithuanian peasants and Jews to the point where by the late 19th century various revo;ts having failed the only answer is to try to leave the land of their birth and seek new lives in the West. This course of action carries huge risks, uncertainty, financial and logistical problems.
The story follows the fortunes of two young sisters, one in particular, Elzbieta, seeking their fortunes in England. They encounter many hardships in seeking better standards for themselves but they have to settle for the Lithuanian Ghetto near the London Docks where they first disembark from the ship which brings them from Hamburg. It is a huge culture shock now they have exchanged the beautiful countryside of their native country for these filthy teeming city slums.
Years later it falls to Joe, Elzbieta’s son, to make a difference to the great scheme of things during World War I. His actions then come back to haunt him 25 years later. This is a story of deprivation, self sacrifice, fighting against all the odds to ensure a better life for future generations. It’s a story of struggle, racial prejudice and integration which will strike a familiar chord with many, even today.
165 pp 210 x 297 mm Portrait. Paperback.
Colour
In Perspective
The inspiration for this book about the local environment was inspired by the author and his wife suddenly coming upon an unexpected scene of woodland destruction one quiet Sunday morning.
That event coupled with the memory of previous well documented (over the years by the author) actions by local councils and developers prompted the realisation that seemingly insignificant acts of so-called progress in terms of development and sometime violent adjustments to the local landscape, when occurring all over the world can have a detrimental cumulative effect on the entire global system.
He gives minutely detailed examples of things which have happened over the past forty or fifty years in and around Brentwood in Essex, UK which local people , on the whole, have had very little influence over. Several examples are given and discussed. There was one huge development scheme however which was thwarted by the concerted peaceful actions of local people who managed to organise themselves into a functional group.
Examples are also given on how people in other part of the world look at things differently to the way we do in our own society. There are lessons to be learned from people elsewhere who are more attuned to the natural world and who often give the environment more consideration than we tend to do here in the industrialised West.
The book gives a rough explanation on how local government in Britain actually works and the difficulties which ordinary people encounter when trying to make their point of view heard. The perennial matter of ‘Greenwashing’ doesn’t escape scrutiny either.
