The Criminal Alphabet

'I have spent almost thirty-three of the last fifty-three years in and out of prison, but mainly in. I was a juvenile offender back in the mid 1970s and went on to become an adult prisoner in the 1980s and beyond. My shortest prison sentence was seven days (for criminal damage) and my longest sentence was life (for bank robbery and possession of firearms). I have fifty-eight criminal convictions for everything from attempted theft to armed robbery and prison escape, and I was a career criminal for most of my life. What I do not know about criminal and prison slang could be written on the back of a postage stamp and still leave room for The Lord's Prayer . . .'

From ex-professional bank robber and bestselling author Noel Smith, this is the most authoritative dictionary of criminal slang out there - and an absorbing journey, through words, into the heart of the criminal world.