Author celebrates 25th year of gang wars book
IT was a genteel gathering considering the subject it was celebrating - no cutthroats, coshes, knives or bare knuckles in evidence unless you counted those of a couple of boxers.
This week author J P Bean marked the 25th anniversary of his seminal book, Sheffield Gang Wars, about the city's violent Twenties, with a pie, peas and rock 'n' roll party at the Riverside pub.
Turned down by 21 publishers until he decided to do it himself, the book went on to sell over 27,000 copies through 16 reprints and has never been off bookshop shelves.
"The main thing that has kept it alive is that it doesn't date although set between 1923 and 1928. As the years go by, the issues are still around," said the teetotal Bean (it's a pseudonym), sipping a lemonade.
The book, helped to a good start by serialisation in The Star, spawned a BBC documentary and is quoted over and again in criminal literature.
And by criminals. Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds professed himself amazed "there were gangs outside London."
There was an eclectic mix at the party. Boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, currently writing his autobiography with Bean, and a couple of boxers, Esham Pickering and Amer Khan, rubbed shoulders with documentary maker Dan Gordon, journalists and, to add a little villainy to the occasion, retired gentleman safebreaker Albert Hattersley.
The book lifted the lid on the city's sordid past, when rival gangs controlling illegal betting rings terrorised the cobbled courtyards and dim alleyways of Depression-hit Sheffield.
It was X-certificate stuff with heads stoved in, razor attacks, coshings and eventually murder and a couple of hangings.
Brooding over it all were George Mooney, leader of the notorious Skyring gang, and his deadly rival Sam Garvin, fighting for control.
It was mayhem until the desperate City Fathers hired new chief constable Captain Percy Sillitoe, whose Special Duties Squad, nicknamed the Flying Squad, went in with boots and fists first, questions later, and by 1928 it was all over.
It was Bean's first book. Since then he has written the official biography of Joe Cocker and a clutch of other titles for mainstream publishers but it's still his favourite.
"Without Gang Wars I would never have started writing books and it's been a good, steady seller," reflects Bean, who has also written plays for Radio 4.
Why did he write it? "My grandfather was a bookmaker - not involved with the gangs - and he knew about them and I must have watched too many episodes of The Untouchables. I thought this is similar but it happened on my doorstep."
In its earlier days the book stirred up ill-feeling. Some wanted to forget. But time changes attitudes.
Tony Mooney, headteacher grandson of George, has said: "It was a story which needed to be told."
As pop historian John Firminger's Gang Wars Band struck up, Bean added: "A new generation has begun to read about events which happened 80 years ago."
Sheffield Gang Wars is published by D&D at 7.99.
Have you got a story for Martin Dawes? Click here.Probably the best compliment to beer
IT'S the beer equivalent of coals to Newcastle.
A little local brewery is selling booze to the Danes who, according to the commercials, are not keen to let their own beer go abroad.
The Thornbridge brewery, near Ashford, was approached by a Danish import company after its Jaipur IPA won a silver in the Great British Beer Festival.
"They enjoyed it so much they asked to sample our other beers," says sales manager Simon Webster.
The brewery will be sending out 30 casks this Friday and hoping for a repeat order.
"We take it as a compliment," says Simon.
Have you got a story for Martin Dawes? Click here.Dean can curb danger dogs
AFTER all the bad news about Rottweilers killing babies and biting people, here's dog trainer Dean Johnson putting the other side of the story.
"They are not particularly dangerous dogs, they just need training," she says.
Dean has had dogs for 40 years and says she only has to take one look at a litter of pups and she can tell which is going to be a leader, another cause trouble, a third be a lap dog and which will be a boundary dog.
Boundary dog?
"You've seen dogs in gardens which spend their time barking. Put the dog in a room or a garden and it will recognise it as its boundaries.
"Now how many times do you see people taking their dogs the same route. It begins to recognise that as its boundary and barks."
Dean, who runs Kennel Club-approved Good Citizen training courses for dogs and owners at her Start-Rite class in Firbeck, says she's been getting calls from Rottweiler owners worried their dogs are going the same way.
While puppyhood is the best time to train, she never gives up. In fact, she's saved several dangerous dogs from a death sentence by standing in court and promising to train them.
Dean is on 01909 591 442.
Wild women worry Maria
MARIA de Souza gets some odd requests from authors at Sheffield's Off The Shelf Literary Festival but one from feminists poets Gills Hands and Victoria Bennett of Wild Women Press takes the proverbial bikkie.
"They've asked me to provide them with a chopping board, sharp knife and cucumber," says organiser Maria worriedly.
The gals will be at The Fusion, University of Sheffield Students' Union at Western bank on Monday, October 16.
With them will be Chloe Poems – "a gay, socialist transvestite poet," says Maria.
Have you got a story for Martin Dawes? Click here.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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