How were criminal children dealt with in the 19th and early 20th centuries? Over this 100 year period, ideas about the way children should behave - and how they should be corrected when they misbehaved - changed dramatically, and Emma Watkins and Barry Godfrey, in this accessible and expert guide, provide a fascinating introduction to this neglected subject. They describe a time in which 'juvenile delinquency' was 'invented', when the problem of youth crime and youth gangs developed, the hooligan, and when society began to think about how to stop criminal children from developing into criminal adults. Chapters cover transportation, Pankhurst, female factories, petitions. Through a selection of short biographies of 31 child criminals ending with Brendan Behan 1923-1964 they give readers a direct view of the experience of children who spent time in prisons, reformatory schools, industrial schools and borstals, and those who were transported to Australia. They also include a section showing how researchers can carry out their own research on child offenders, the court and police records they will need and how to use them for research. 162 page paperback.

In 1933, the celebrated German economist Robert Kuczynski and his wife Berta arrived in Britain as refugees from Nazism, followed shortly afterwards by their six children. Jürgen, known to be a leading Communist, was an object of considerable concern to MI5. Ursula, codenamed Sonya, was a colonel in Russia's Red Army who had spied on the Japanese in Manchuria, while MI5 also kept extensive files on her four sisters, Brigitte, Barbara, Sabine and Renate. In Britain, Ursula controlled the spies Klaus Fuchs and Melita Norwood, without whom the Soviet atomic bomb would have been delayed for at least five years. Drawing on newly released files, Family Betrayal reveals the operations of a network at the heart of Soviet intelligence in Britain. Over 70 years of espionage activity the Kuczynskis and their associates gained access to high-ranking officials in the British government, civil service and justice system. For the first time, acclaimed historian David Burke tells the whole story of one of the most accomplished spy rings in history. His chapters include Turning Hitler Eastwards, the Indian Communist Party and the BBC, the Manhattan Project and Bletchley Park, Vansittartism, William Skardon's Interrogation of Ursula, the Greek Civil War and the Haldane Society of Lawyers among them. 292 pages.

Sub-titled The Lost Lives of The Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra. On 17 July 1918, four young women walked down 23 steps into the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg. The eldest was 22, the youngest only 17. Together with their parents and their 13 year old brother, they were all brutally murdered. Their crime: to be the daughters of the last Tsar and Tsaritsa of All the Russias. This sensitive and moving biography probes their stories for the richness and fun that they enjoyed during their short lives, and against all the odds it is an inspiring and enjoyable read. The chapter headings tell their own story, from 'What a disappointment! Fourth girl!' to 'Terrible things are going on in St Petersburg'. In 1914 Olga and Tatiana Romanova were among the most wealthy and marriageable princesses in royal circles, with glamorous Tatiana being paired off in the press with the future Edward VIII. On the outbreak of war the two girls trained as nurses, but the revolution sent them into exile, and Christmas 1917 was particularly poignant, spent under house arrest in Siberia. Deprived of The Times, they heard little news, though the October revolution in Petrograd had reached them. Meanwhile the temperature plummeted to -23 C. On Christmas Day they walked through the snow to church, where the priest caused controversy by using their imperial titles. The girls decorated a tree with a wonderful resinous scent, and they presented each of the twenty guards with a gospel and bookmark at their own private vespers. The end was not far away. 512 page paperback, archive photos.

Examines the postwar Canadian slasher killings and the social consequences of the public paranoia that followed. This book tells the story of Windsor slasher, the social frenzy that his attacks created, and the surprising results that this hysteria generated. As the city of Windsor, Ontario, celebrated the end of World War II and the return of its troops with parades and public revelry, the industrial city was shaken by a series of brutal stabbings. The failure of the police to catch the murderer, a "blood lusting maniac" as the local newspaper described him, the turbulence of the times, and the seemingly random nature of the killings plunged the city into a panic. By July and August of 1945, Windsor residents knew there was a serial killer living among them and that, despite numerous police roundups, no credible suspect had been found. The following summer the panic escalated when the stabbings began again and, this time, focused on "sex deviants" whom the public and police had decided were at the heart of the problem. Brode examines the vicious press campaign that arose out of the paranoia that vilified drifters, the unemployed, racial minorities, and, finally, sexual outsiders, only further fanning the flames of the growing panic. Brode reveals how the authorities used this hysteria to support their efforts to monitor and control the actions of gay men, a campaign that would be part of the process that led to Canada's 1948 "criminal sexual psychopath" law but would ultimately bring them no closer to the identity of the killer. 236 page paperback.

An intimate portrait of the Kray twins by the woman who knew them best. Kate Kray was married to Ronnie Kray from 1989 to 1994 and is a bestselling true crime writer of several books. 50 years on from their imprisonment, this thrilling and at times terrifying memoir remains a truly unique portrait of the real men behind the immortal image. It features exclusive letters, thoughts from the twins themselves, anecdotes and tributes from gangsters, actors and East End faces, and Kate was granted unique access to the shadowy underworld they inhabited and entrusted with some of the darkest secrets they possessed which could never be revealed until both twins were dead. 265pp including letters reproduced in their own handwriting, fairly large print and eight pages of photos. Paperback.

Spring-Heeled Jack - a tall, thin, bounding figure with bat-like wings, clawed hands, wheels of fire for eyes, and breath of blue flames - first leapt to public attention in Victorian London in 1838, springing over hedges and walls, from dark lanes and dank graveyards, to frighten and sometimes physically attack women. News of this strange and terrifying character quickly spread, but despite numerous sightings through 1904 he was never captured or identified. Exploring the vast urban legend surrounding this enigmatic figure, John Matthews explains how the Victorian fascination with strange phenomena and sinister figures, paired with hysterical reports, enabled Spring-Heeled Jack to be conjured into existence. Sharing original 19th-century newspaper accounts of sightings and encounters, he also examines recent 20th and 21st century reports, including a 1953 UFO-related sighting from Houston, Texas, and disturbing accounts of the Slender Man, who displays notable similarities with Jack. He traces Spring-Heeled Jack's origins to earlier mythical beings from folklore, such as fairy creatures and land spirits, and explores the theory that Jack is an alien marooned on Earth whose leaping prowess is attributed to his home planet having far stronger gravity than ours. The author reveals how Jack the Ripper, although a different and much more violent character, chose to identify himself with the old, well-established figure of Spring-Heeled Jack. The writer has made a lifetime study of the legends of King Arthur, the Celtic traditions, and is the author of more than 100 books and ends here with why the worldwide Steampunk community has so thoroughly embraced Jack. Includes 15 colour, illustrations and dozens of woodcuts in a nice clear paperback of 342 pages.

Castaways have a big hold on our imaginations, as we can see from the first novel in English, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, together with modern developments of the same theme, from The Martian to I'm A Celebrity - get me out of here and Pirates of the Caribbean. Defoe started life as plain Daniel Foe, marrying young and engaging in a series of failed business ventures. In 1685 he headed west in support of the Monmouth rebellion and was lucky to escape execution. Then he wrote political pamphlets, which soon got him back in gaol. Finally he became a spy for the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Harley, and started writing books. Robinson Crusoe in 1719 was a surprise hit with the public, with its winning formula of the slave-trader shipwrecked with his dog and cat, armed only with a Bible, who is assisted in his survival by the unexpected appearance of Man Friday, heralded by an enormous footprint. He is not alone! Crusoe has never been out of print and has been filmed several times. Alexander Selkirk was a famous real-life castaway whose story Defoe is likely to have known through Selkirk's rescuer, Captain Woodes Rogers. Selkirk ran away to sea to escape retribution for a series of misdemeanours and became a privateer, choosing to be set ashore from a ship he considered in danger of breaking up, and after four years was picked up by Woodes Rogers who was circumnavigating the world, the first captain to return with crew and vessel intact. Other possible influences were Robert Knox, who adopted native customs when shipwrecked on Sri Lanka, the explorer of Ascension Island, William Dampier, Captain Bligh, and the 60 slaves who were marooned for 15 years on Tromelin near Madagascar. The book looks at astonishing tales of survival in the face of adversity, down in Falklands, in the Caribbean and off the coast of Australia and how being a castaway brings out the best in some and in others the very worst, with stories of murder rape and betrayal. 151 pages, maps, photos in black and white and colour.

Temperamental scheming and manipulative, known as "La Chatte", Mathilde Carré may have been driven by psychopathic tendencies, being "completely lacking in ordinary human understanding and sympathy", but it is more likely that she had a willingness to sacrifice more than 100 friends, colleagues and lovers for her own ends, fuelled by jealousy and a tendency to fantasize. As a double, possibly triple agent, Mathilde, codenamed Victoire, betrayed 60 Resistance workers, some of whom died as a result. During the occupation of France by Germany from May 1940, many subversive groups emerged with both right and left wing affiliations. There was a climate of mistrust not only of the German occupiers but also of their fellow-citizens. This book draws on previously unpublished material from MI5 files, and attempts to set the record straight on the complexities of the Interallié Affair. Victoire was an agent of the Interallié network, an organisation working on behalf of the Polish Secret Service in Occupied France, and on 18 November 1941 she was arrested by the Abwehr, subsequently becoming a double agent while still operating the Interallié radio and probably also becoming the mistress of Abwehr officer Feldwebel Hugo Bleicher, whom she accompanied on a series of round-ups of network operatives. 6 December was a particularly productive day in which Victoire met Betrand and Bob, who between them gave away the whereabouts of six other agents before being arrested, together with the plan of the local SOE Overcloud organisation. The Lucas network was a deception practised on SOE officer Pierre de Vomécourt, an imaginary network through which information was channelled direct to Bleicher, but Vomécourt was suspicious and persuaded Victoire to travel to England, where she was interned and returned to France after the war for trial, which resulted in imprisonment. With an impressive amount of detail the author charts all the stages of Victoire's treachery, though exactly where her real loyalties lay at any one point remains uncertain. Mainly she wanted men, money and revenge on her sexual rivals such as the agent "Violette". 488pp, photos.

The difference between privateers and pirates was that one had a licence to attack foreign shipping, the other acted illegally. In practice, however, they were often indistinguishable. This interesting book redefines the glamorous swashbuckling image of both pirates and privateers, replacing it with a buccaneering pragmatist operating in dangerous conditions and politically ambiguous situations. Many pirates did achieve fame based on personality, as we can see from the stories of some of the most famous, for instance Blackbeard, Captain Morgan and Mary Read. At the end of the golden age of piracy, stretching from 1650 to 1730, a colourful "General History of the Pyrates" was published, influencing the mythology for centuries, although it was probably not written, as at first supposed, by Daniel Defoe. The myth of gold bullion was always greatly exaggerated, and a pirate's booty was more likely to be tobacco, sugar or cotton. Walking the plank was probably also a myth, though the so-called "Enlightenment" was an age of barbaric punishment. In the 1690s the Caribbean became too crowded, and European pirates went further afield to the Red Sea and coast of east Africa. Pirates flew a black flag which was sometimes enough to make a ship surrender, but privateers operating under government licence might adopt the flag of an enemy nation to give a false sense of security. The book examines pirates' lifestyle, looking at how the sinking of a Spanish treasure fleet in a storm off the coast of Florida led to a pirates' gold rush and how the King's Pardon was a desperate gamble which paid off, and it considers the role of individual island governors such as Woodes Rogers in the Bahamas in bringing piracy under control. Captain Morgan was a privateer on good terms with the Governor of Jamaica, whom he paid handsomely to overlook certain clauses in his contract. Henry Avery was an interesting case of a pirate who quit with his booty while he was winning, whereas most buccaneers went on until killed or captured. By the mid-18th century regulations were being tightened and the enterprise squeezed out of existence. 173pp, photos and illustrations.

Henry Marten, soldier, member of Parliament, organiser of the trial of Charles I and signatory of the King's Death Warrant, is today a neglected figure of the 17th century. Yet his life was both extraordinary and emblematic. He was at the fulcrum of English history during the turbulent years of the Civil War, the Protectorate and the Restoration. Imprisoned in the Tower of London and tried at the Old Bailey, Marten was found guilty of High Treason, only to be held captive for years on the equivalent of death row. It was while he was in prison that his letters to his mistress Mary Ward were stolen and published in an attempt to destroy his reputation. Witty, clever, loving, sardonic and never despairing, the letters offer a rare and extraordinary insight into the everyday life of a man in the Tower of London awaiting a sentence of death. The attempt to expose him as immoral revealed him instead as a tender and brave man. In this revelatory biography, he emerges as a clever, lively-minded man, free of the fundamentalist zeal so common in many of his republican contemporaries. Marten never abandoned his beliefs in equality, in a representative Parliament under a Constitution (which he had helped to write) without a monarch or a House of Lords, and in that way can be seen as a very modern man. 'A deeply researched and convincing portrait of the later years of one of the most remarkable radical politicians in British history.' - Ronald Hutton. It also reminds us that not all regicides were soldier puritans, and that some men believed in a republic before the Civil War started. Illustrated, 214pp.