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The Long Firm (Paperback)

by Jake Arnott (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £5.65 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Sceptre; New edition edition (17 Feb 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340748788
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340748787
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 145,920 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #7 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > A > Arnott, Jake

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

"What's breaking into a bank compared with founding one?" Bertolt Brecht's provocative question opens Jake Arnott's first novel The Long Firm and sets the scene for its memorable exploration of the London underworld at the beginning of the 1960s. Five very different characters tell their five very different stories about "Torture Gang Boss" Harry Starks. A man who "liked to break people" but also a "frightened little child" is how his lover and kept boy Terry recalls him; a "lower-class tearaway", according to the Tory lord who frequents his erotic parties; a depressive with a diabolical mind, one who likes to "stage manage the fear", in the eyes of his various criminal and starlet peers; a product of working-class subculture and a living critique of capitalism, concludes the radical young sociologist who teaches him in prison. Harry Starks is the beginning and end of The Long Firm, a compelling showman who embodies the brutal realism and impossible dreams at the heart of Arnott's vision of London low life. The glamour and corruption of that life drive this story but Arnott manages to weave cliche into enigma, myth into inquiry, in a way that revitalises the well-worn images of the mad and the bad. As Starks would put it, keeping Brecht's question before the readers' eyes, "It's all about the economy of power, Lenny". --Vicky Lebeau --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Time Out

‘Gripping ... slumming it doesn't get much better than this'
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The Long Firm
66% buy the item featured on this page:
The Long Firm 4.1 out of 5 stars (37)
£5.65
The Long Firm (Sceptre 21's)
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The Long Firm (Sceptre 21's) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
He Kills Coppers
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He Kills Coppers 3.7 out of 5 stars (25)
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Truecrime
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Truecrime 3.0 out of 5 stars (15)
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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An ambitious sweep across the decades......, 23 Oct 2007
By Wynne Kelly "Kellydoll" (Coventry, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
Well researched story of sixties London gangland told from different perspectives - rentboy, would be actress, corrupt MP, fellow criminal Jack the Hat and hippy sociology lecturer. Focuses on Harry Starks, a charismatic gangster with very brutal tendencies.

An ambitious sweep across the decades which includes factual figures - Kray brothers, Judy Garland etc. The inclusion of the sociology/Open University part was very entertaining and there was a satisfactorily dramatic ending. I listened to The Long Firm on an audiobook - very well read by Dave John.

The first book I have read by Jake Arnott - but will certainly look out for more....
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, 23 May 2006
By FRS (Norfolk) - See all my reviews
  
This is an episodic, fantastic page turner set in the 60's. The Kray comparisons are very obvious, but do not spoil or detract from this page turner.
Sex-Drugs-Violence-Crime-60'S Glamour and Grime are all to be found in spades in this book. Not for the faint hearted.
The central character Harry Sparkes is big enough to carry any novel of this genre, or most other genres, The minor characters all have their part to play, and are skilfully written.
Fantastic, I recommend it, even if like me, you have no interest in the Krays or 60's swinging gangland London.
PS Did I say I thought it was Fantastic?

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Long Firm, 6 Jul 2002
...This is an extremely pacy book... sometimes sickening in the violence that was a part of those times and is a part of our times too. Harry is not a nice person. He uses and abuses people... but, nonethless he has a certain charm which makes him a magnet for the 5 narrators in the book, whatever their motives...

I only bought this book to cover the boredom of air travel, but came off my flights intoxicated by this book and by the quantity of beer I swallowed to keep up... A brilliant first novel.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A cracking read
The tale of Harry Starks told through five very different sets of eyes. When you find out that Harry is a gay gangster in 1960s London your mind springs to Ronnie Kray, however... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Oldevers

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping gangster story
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Arnott's central character of the gay gangster Harry Starks is charismatic, enigmatic and deeply disturbed. Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2007 by quippe

3.0 out of 5 stars Good well researched read (but not the claimed masterpiece)
Having lived through the sixties and in many of the areas of London covered by this book plus I fear read one too many books on the Krays, I looked forward to this with some... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2006 by Siriam

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!!
Wow. From the moment I started the first chapter I knew this was going to be the business. This book takes you back to sixties London, through the eyes of five compelling... Read more
Published on 16 Jul 2005 by Mr. L. Jackson

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair to middling
An elegantly written, fast-paced thriller with an atmospheric sense of time and place. However, while much of the characterisation is crisp and believable, Harry Starks' excursion... Read more
Published on 19 Jul 2004 by G. L. Haggett

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent debut by Jake Arnott
Excellent debut by Jake Arnott, his language is fantastically descriptive, and his vocabulary is extraordinary. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars great atmosphere
As someone who grew up in this era, I found it recreated the atmosphere brilliantly. The use of the first person by a number of characters is also a very innovative form in my... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2001 by hill47@aol.com

5.0 out of 5 stars the best debut book ever
from the moment i started reading this book i could not stop. it was fascinating, entertaining, gripping. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2001 by scimsteels@supanet.com

2.0 out of 5 stars interesting but ultimately frustrating
this was one of the books that everyone on the train was reading so when i got book tokens for xmas i thought i'd give it a try. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars My Best Book for 2000
"The Long Firm" is without doubt the best book I have read in the last year. Firstly, for the most original way in which it is written, telling the story of a 60's... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2001

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