'Child soldiers' of 14 with guns on London's streets

'Child soldiers' of 14 with guns on London's streets

This may be a few months old now but I hadn't seen it until today, doing some research after Gavin 'followed' CrimeTalk on Twitter, and it is a remarkable documentation of a contemporary development on the streets of London. Gavin Knight's work belongs to the 'new journalism' genre of non-fiction written in a fictionalised style: check his website for more stuff like this on the summer riots.

A widely published journalist, and clearly an ethnographer, Gavin has a tasty-looking book out, called Hood Rat, that you can buy through our bookshop, and support CrimeTalk: just click here and go to Crime General or click on the advertisement frame below.

From his website:

"Researched on the front line and told like a thriller, a unique and groundbreaking exploration of Britain’s hidden ganglands.

In Moss Side, Manchester, detective Anders Svensson is on the trail of drug baron Merlin and his lieutenant Flow, a man so dangerous his type is said to appear only once in a decade. Among the bleak housing estates of Glasgow, where teenage boys engage in deadly territorial knife fights every Saturday night, police analyst Karen McCluskey is on a mission to bring a new understanding to the most violent city in Europe. And in Hackney, 19-year-old Pilgrim has made himself one of the most feared gang-members in East London, wanted for attempted murder and seemingly condemned to a life of crime – until he starts to help kids like Troll, a Somali child-soldier turned enforcer, who runs drugs through the Havelock Estate in Southall . . .

In Hood Rat these narratives interlock to create a fast-moving experience of a contemporary British underworld that ranks with Roberto Saviano’s bestselling Gomorrah. Gavin Knight was embedded with frontline police units and has spent years with his contacts; here he tells their stories with sharp observation and empathy.

Page-turning, unflinching and politically-charged – this is a book that could not be more pressing.

Gavin Knight has written for the Guardian, Newsweek, Esquire, The Times and Prospect. Hood Rat is his first book.

HOOD RAT, a true-crime thriller, was published by Picador on 1st July 2011."

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