Nil Desperandum: Never Despair - A Biography of Patsy Feeley: Amazon.co.uk: Terry Smith, David Glover: Books

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Review

Nil Desperandum is a book that could never have worked unless the person who actually wrote it was the author and the person it was actually written about was the subject. Terry Smith wasn t exactly raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had, by his own admission, a tumultuous childhood and received a lengthy stretch inside for armed robbery. He escaped, was recaptured and received another 16 years for his bravado. Ironically, it was this second sentence that may have been his salvation as he discovered therein that he had the ability to write. Now released and fully reformed, he has penned a gripping biography of one of the East End s most resilient characters, the legendary Patsy Feeley. Feeley may have been a criminal, but life has thrown back at him a lot of hard times to balance the scales. Some of those times, such as facing a lengthy prison sentence, one could argue to be self-inflicted. Others, such as battles with throat cancer and a stroke, seem to have been dished out by the whims of fate. Whatever one may think of Feeley s past, he has faced up to his problems with great courage. We hear a lot of talk nowadays about getting tough on crime and the causes of crime . I don t think anyone should pontificate on the subject until they ve read this fascinating book. --Mike Hallowell, The Shields Gazette

A fascinating read. --Duncan Campbell, The Guardian (Senior Correspondent)

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Born into abject poverty and a culture of crime in the East End of London shortly before the Second World War, Patsy Feeley soon realised that life was all about determination and survival. After long spells in approved school, detention centre, borstal and the Army, he developed a healthy disdain and distrust of authority. Employing streetwise skills and ingenuity, he embarked on an adventurous life of crime and excitement. He was soon spotted and recruited by a gang of professional armed robbers to take part in plundering banks and security vans across London and the south-east of England, quickly earning a reputation as one of the best armed robbers and money-getters in London . While at the peak of his notoriety and success, however, he was faced with a quadruple nightmare: a long prison sentence, a gangland murder investigation, cancer of the throat and a severe stroke that left him in a wheelchair. Yet, bullheaded and intransigent to the last, he somehow managed to pull himself back from the abyss. This book not only provides an eye-opener about crime, criminals, the justice system and prison, but also the health-care system and the problems associated with being a severely disabled person. It is the warts-and-all story of one of the great oaks of East End folklore and, above all, a story of immense human suffering and endurance that can only demand respect.

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