A Rusty Gun

A unique insight into how someone goes about changing the vile and destructive habits of a lifetime. A gripping read

It's saddening, angering and informative stuff

I can't put it down. Smith's accounts of life beyond the windowless walls [of prison] ... are chilling beyond belief

Noel 'Razor' Smith was born in London in 1960. He has fifty-eight criminal convictions and has spent the greater portion of his adult life in prison. Whilst in prison he taught himself to read and write, gained an Honours Diploma from The London School of Journalism and an A-Level in Law. He has been awarded a number of Koestler awards for his writing and has contributed articles to the Independent, the Guardian, Punch, the Big Issue, the New Statesman and the New Law Journal. 
He was released from prison in 2010 after serving 11 years of a life-sentence for armed robbery, the last few years at Grendon being the subject of this memoir. He is the previous author of the highly acclaimed A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun (Penguin, 2005).

As a gun-wielding bank robber, Noel 'Razor' Smith was top of the criminal tree, enjoying the excitement and benefits of a dangerous and adrenalin-filled career. But he'd also spent the greater part of his adult life in prison, an environment where respect and basic survival were guaranteed only to those prepared to use the most brutal violence. In his new book, Smith takes the story on from his highly acclaimed memoir A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun, and describes how he came to realize that the game wasn't worth the candle. In his mid-forties he applied to enter Grendon, then the only prison in Britain offering intense therapeutic treatment to hardened criminals. He went from a brutal high-security prison, HMP Whitemoor, to an institution where he was encouraged to investigate just why his life had been given over to violence and crime. Smith paints an unforgettable portrait of the hardened and severely damaged inmates of Grendon, many of them guilty of famous crimes, and their attempts to turn round their lives. And in particular his own arduous five-year journey to re-enter society as a straight citizen.

Raiders

Razor Smith is currently serving the ninth year of a life-imprisonment sentence. His powerful and highly acclaimed autobiography, A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun, is published by Penguin.

Over the years, both inside and out (though mainly in) he met and associated with many armed robbers, and in Raiders he tells their amazing stories. Like Big Bad Bob, the Scotsman who raided bureaux de change 'armed' only with a water-pistol; Steve the Saint, who risked the best relationship of his life on one last big one in the West End and ended up getting a life sentence; and the members of the Little Firm who terrorized south London till their addictions got the better of them. 
 
The heyday of the armed bank robber may have passed as security has become all but watertight and sentences draconian. But there are some still prepared to risk it, for the thrills as well as the money. But be warned: if you are stupid enough to take up bank robbery as a career, you will be going to prison. It's odds on. Just read this book.

The Autobiography of a Career Criminal

A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun

A shocking, brutal and honest insight into criminal life and a frightening glance behind the walls of some of the most notorious prisons.

Noel 'Razor' Smith was born in London in 1960. He has 58 criminal convictions and has spent the greater portion of his adult life in prison. Whilst in prison he taught himself to read and write, gained an Honours Diploma from The London School of Journalism and an A-Level in Law. He has been awarded a number of Koestler awards for his writing and has contributed articles to the Independent, the Guardian, Punch, the Big Issue, the New Statesman and the New Law Journal. He is currently serving a life-sentence for armed robbery. A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun is his first book.

A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun is the autobiography of convicted felon Noel 'Razor' Smith. An extraordinarily vivid account of how a tearaway kid from South London became a career criminal, it is both a searing indictment of a system that determinedly brutalized young offenders and a frank, unsentimental acknowledgement of the thrills of the criminal life. Shocking, fascinating and frightening by turns, it also reveals Razor Smith to be a remarkably talented writer.

Noel 'Razor' Smith

An A-Z of Prison Slang

'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.

The Criminal Alphabet

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