As we got to know them from the hit TV series, the straw hats ooze drama and ominousness. The elegant, charismatic, but still depraved Shelbys blind their enemies with a razor blade sewn into the brim of their hats, while they fight a bloody battle with the Irish terrorists on the one hand, and the police on the other hand, which is controlled by the nail-biting Home Secretary Churchill.
From this book, we learn about the rarely mentioned struggles of the working class in one of the strongholds of British industry before the First World War. However, the story continues even after 1918,
when a couple of straw hatters form the infamous Birmingham gang. This gang, led by the real Billy Kimber, had killer battles with Darby Sabini and Alfie Solomon
with London gangsters for protection money that can be skimmed from post-war horse racing in Britain.
But who were the real hatters? Did they even exist?
Carl Chinn, the well-known social historian and presenter, now tells the true story of the notorious criminals. In fact, his great-grandfather was one of them, and his grandfather was also an illegal bookie on the outskirts of Birmingham, just like the Shelbys. It reveals the facts behind the tale with an impressive wealth of original sources, rarely seen images and interviews with the descendants of the straw hatters.