The Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel
Condition: SECONDHAND
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Harry the Valet began his criminal career out of grief, but became Europe s most notorious jewel thief out of love. The story of a real-life Raffles a man who wore bespoke suits and handmade shoes; who used a dozen pseudonyms to dust over his tracks; who belonged to three smart London clubs and lived in the luxury of West End hotels; whose staple diet was champagne and whisky; who was pursued by London s top detectives for five and a half years and by their own admission proved smarter than them; and who fell so much in love with an Gaiety girl, a women who he would steal for and lie for and who would eventually betray him. His daring and well planned theft of the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland s jewels from her train carriage at Paris Gare du Nord station on October 1898 was one of the most widely reported court cases of the late Victorian era. Harry took more than 40 pieces of jewellery with an approximate value of o30,000 a sum worth nearly o2m today. But what no one knew at the time was that he had already committed nine almost identical crimes. This amazing story embraces a controversial Duchess, her Knighted husband, who was also a Conservative MP under suspicio
Author: Duncan Hamilton
Format: Paperback, 304 pages, 135mm x 216mm, 351 g
Published: 2011, Cornerstone, United Kingdom
Genre: True Crime
Harry the Valet began his criminal career out of grief, but became Europe s most notorious jewel thief out of love. The story of a real-life Raffles a man who wore bespoke suits and handmade shoes; who used a dozen pseudonyms to dust over his tracks; who belonged to three smart London clubs and lived in the luxury of West End hotels; whose staple diet was champagne and whisky; who was pursued by London s top detectives for five and a half years and by their own admission proved smarter than them; and who fell so much in love with an Gaiety girl, a women who he would steal for and lie for and who would eventually betray him. His daring and well planned theft of the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland s jewels from her train carriage at Paris Gare du Nord station on October 1898 was one of the most widely reported court cases of the late Victorian era. Harry took more than 40 pieces of jewellery with an approximate value of o30,000 a sum worth nearly o2m today. But what no one knew at the time was that he had already committed nine almost identical crimes. This amazing story embraces a controversial Duchess, her Knighted husband, who was also a Conservative MP under suspicio