 | The Gilt Kid by James Curtis
Buy new: £8.35 / Used from: £3.66 1936. A breathtaking ride through underworld Soho in the 1930s, written in the arcane vernacular of the day by one of the great forgotten 20th Century English writers.
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 | Wide Boys Never Work by Robert Westerby
Buy new: £6.89 / Used from: £5.58 1937. Dog track gangs, gay tough guys, seedy clubs, used car dealers
what's not to love? Up there with the best of James Curtis in its depiction of London's seamy underbelly.
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 | Night and the City by Gerald Kersh
Buy new: £7.98 / Used from: £5.06 1937. Flawed but with some real high points, and a classic low-life icon in the shape of Harry Fabian. Good scenes set in Soho clip joints that probably aren't much different today.
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 | Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (Vintage Classics) by Patrick Hamilton
Buy new: £6.72 / Used from: £2.29 1929-35. Hamilton's first real masterpiece (although Craven House is excellent too). As all his best work, it's both hilarious and heartbreaking.
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 | Hangover Square: A Story of Darkest Earl's Court (Penguin Modern Classics) by Patrick Hamilton
Buy new: £6.47 / Used from: £4.20 1941. George Bone's desparate, pathetic and sometimes homicidal pursuit of the heartless Netta.
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 | London Belongs to Me (Penguin Modern Classics) by Norman Collins
Buy new: £6.87 / Used from: £4.06 1947. Not unlike Angel Pavement in its aims, it's not quite as good and feels overlong - but still highly recommended.
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 | There ain't no justice by James Curtis
1937. If you can find a copy
Curtis's hard-hitting story of a young boxer, set in the notorious slum district of Notting Dale.
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| You're in the racket, too, by James Curtis
1938. Also hard to find, but a riotous, cynical depiction of a London in which everyone is out for themselves and themselves alone. Begins in Bruce House - then, as now, a hostel for the homeless.
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 | Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Penguin Modern Classics) by George Orwell
Buy new: £5.71 / Used from: £3.67 1936. Would-be poet Gordon Comstock quits his safe job and descends into paralysing poverty.
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| The Scapegoat Dances by Mark Benney
Buy used from: £13.51 1938. A only-partially successful and self-conscious attempt by an actual ex-burglar to create something 'literary' within the low-life genre.
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 | They Drive by Night (London Books) by James Curtis
Buy new: £6.89 / Used from: £4.25 1938. Not exclusively London-set, but another Curtis classic encompassing a runaway ex-con, long-distance lorry drivers and a chillingly believable serial killer.
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