The hustlers - Douglas Thompson

In the early sixties, John Burke was running illegal gambling parties in Belgravia and his friend Bobby McKew was lieutenant to a notorious crime boss. Then, after the sensational court case in which their defence resulted in gambling being legalized, clubs sprang up everywhere, and both could see that there was money to be made.

Finally able to tell their story, John and Bobby describe the scam they called 'the big edge', an undetectable way to fix the cards. As John says, 'It was psychologically and mathematically brilliant. Einstein would have been proud of it.' It was the ultimate con, worth tens of millions of pounds. They stole from everyone - the rich and titled, movie moguls and the ordinary punter.

Evoking London society in the 1950s and 60s, with fantastic characters from legendary safecracker Eddie Chapman and Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds to Ian Fleming and the Maharaja of Baroda, The Hustlers is a gripping account of one of the twentieth century's most outrageous scams.

'What is so intriguing is how so many episodes, involving the rich, the dodgy, the outright criminal . fit so neatly together to make up this Hogarthian tableau of a generation gone by' Daily Mail