James Morton Books

From former Great British Bake Off finalist and author of Brilliant Bread, James Morton, the no-nonsense guide to making and baking perfect sourdough bread

James Morton was surely the people's favourite to win 2012's Great British Bake Off series - with his Fairisle jumpers and eccentric showstoppers, this soft-spoken Scottish medical student won the viewers' hearts if not the trophy. James uses supermarket flour and instant yeast - you can save money by making your own bread.

The no-nonsense guide to making your favourite beer at home.

Britain's most infamous criminals: the Kray twins. The extent of their activities has always been uncertain. But now, it is time for the conclusive account of their story, from their East End beginnings, to becoming the kingpins of London's underworld.

This is an omnibus edition of two books about how the police force works. In the first, Morton unravels the tangled history of key players, including Bertie Smalls, the original supergrass, and his successor, "King Squealer" Maurice O'Mahony. The second is a study of police corruption in the UK.

Are you a nob, on a one-way ride? Perhaps you're a mechanic, or a stand-over man? Do you have brown kotchel or do you go mumping? If you don't know what this means then this complete guide to criminal slang as spoken in the UK, USA, and Australia should help.

Best-selling author James Morton tells the story of organized espionage in Britain from spy fever early in the 20th century to the end of the First World War and the rise of air intelligence. He introduces us to a world of colorful characters and dark underhand dealing in which spies, male and female, driven by love, money, patriotism or a mix of all of them, struggled to survive. The first English officer spies are featured alongside their frequently flamboyant French, Belgium and German counterparts - from the hunchback dentist Wilhelm Klauer to the 'Grande (and lesser) horizontales' such as Mata Hari. So too are their controllers such as authors John Buchan and Somerset Maugham and men like Richard Tinsley who oversaw a network of some 2000 spies from Holland. As professionalism grew great successes emerged - not least the deciphering of the intercepted Zimmerman telegram - along with notable failures. Morton tackles both in a meticulously researched narrative that balances the history of espionage with the human stories of individuals and tales of heroism with cowardice, incompetence and betrayal.

In August 1955 two men fought on the corner of Frith Street and Old Compton Street, Soho. From the dreadful injuries they inflicted on each other it easily could have been a hanging matter, but ironically it became known as 'The Fight that Never Was'. It was, however, to have enormous repercussions in the battle for control of Soho and its clubs and for the bookmakers' pitches on the racecourses. It also led to the inexorable rise of the Kray twins. One of the men fighting was Jack Spot, the self-proclaimed defender of the Jewish community against Fascism. The other was the half Italian Albert Dimes, the right hand man of Spot's one-time friend and later nemesis Billy Hill, rightly described as the nearest Britain has ever had to a mastermind. Meticulously researched, including interviews with the survivors of the era, this is the story of the rise and fall of Spot from an East End background and Hill from a criminal family in Holborn, as well as that of their spiritual mentor Darby Sabini, the King of the Racecourses in the 1920s and 1930s and his successors Alf and Harry White.

In Gangland, his survey of London's underworld, James Morton concentrated on the history, personalities, and powers behind the capital's criminal fraternity. In this companion volume, he turns his attention to the country as a whole, assessing the role of the criminal families, gangs, and organizations in Britain's major cities. After a concise overview of the London scene, including families such as the Krays, the Sabinis, and the Richardsons, Morton embarks on a nationwide tour of robbery, extortion, and vice. From Glasgow's hard men to the burgeoning drugs market on Manchester's Moss Side, the book discusses the people and places behind the profession of violence, documenting the histories, fads, and feuds, and offering views on the crimes themselves.

In the form of a collection of street maps, an episodic history of diverse stories, some lost, forgotten or hidden within one of the great cities of the world.

CALLING TIME ON THE KRAYS is the extraordinary true story of the woman who braved the might of London's most notorious criminal fraternity when she agreed to give the evidence that convicted Ronnie Kray for the murder of George Cornell at The Blind Beggar pub in East London on March 9th 1966. That woman was the barmaid and after 30 years as a gangland target, Mrs X relives the hopes and fears of her life in hiding, when she was forced to protect her true identity and move from safe house to safe house in an attempt to preserve herself and her three children from being silenced for good. In MURDER WITHOUT CONVICTION , John Dickson, a close and trusted friend of the Krays for many years, tells the inside story of their notorious gangland underworld. He describes the murder of George Cornell, Jack 'the Hat' McVitie and 'Mad Axeman' Frank Mitchell; the extortion, protection and gambling rackets; the Mafia connections; the increasingly erratic and senselessly violent behaviour of the Kray Twins and their final dramatic arrest at a time when their reputation was so fearsome that they were convinced that they were invincible.

A fresh, new look at gangs in every part of the world which deliberately avoids the stories that have been done to death - about Capone, Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde - and focuses on less well-known gangs such as 'Ma' Barker's Boys; the Smaldones of Denver; Scotland Yard's 1960s' Flying Squad, the so-called Firm within a Firm; Dr Death, the Melbourne drug dealer and Andre Stander, the former South African police officer who led a gang of bank robbers before being shot dead in Fort Lauderdale having fled a 17-year sentence.

Fast-paced and wide-ranging, Gangland International considers the history of organized crime, from the Italian and American Mafia—including Capone, Dillinger, Murder Inc, Lansky, and Detroit’s Purple Gang—to the the Russian mafiya, the Japanese yakuza, and the South American drug cartels. James Morton also examines the role of the Green Gang of Shanghai, Rocco Perri in Toronto, Australia’s razor gangs, New Zealand’s Mongrel Mob, the Dubois family of Montreal, and the French Zemour brothers. Compulsive and explosive reading, Gangland International is a vivid survey of worldwide criminal activity.

The extraordinary life of the most notorious adventuress of the Victorian era How did an Irish Protestant girl, baptized Eliza Gilbert, transform herself into the most famous courtesan of the nineteenth century, attracting admirers and scandal wherever she went? This enthralling biography reveals the incredible true story of Lola Montez - who packed more adventure (and lovers) into her short life than any other woman of her time (or probably any other time). She captivated and ruined King Ludwig of Bavaria; at least one man was killed in a duel over her, another she horse-whipped; and she was not averse to shooting at her lovers in moments of anger. Her travels as an actress and dancer took her to four continents, and in her day racehorses and dances were named after her. Her meteoric life ended at the age of 41 in New York.

A history of East End gangsters from the 1870s until today, charting the changes in society and the way the Underworld has evolved to stay ahead of the Law.

From Scratch: Sourdough features recipes and top tips on everything you need to know to make your own sourdough from scratch. For homebakers, sourdough is the true test of every aspiring bread-maker. Fickle, delicate, every loaf is unique. And there are a LOT of pitfalls to be avoided. It's much more than simply a food: sourdough is a science. So who better than Dr James Morton, baking pedant and fermentation fanatic, to explain the basics for both the uninitiated and more experienced bakers? Extracting from and updating his book Super Sourdough, James talks the home cook through everything from starters, flours and hydration, to kneading, shaping, rising, slashing and baking, explaining how to achieve the perfect crust and crumb. With more than 40 sourdough recipes including basic loaves and rolls, baguettes, bagels and buns, clear step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting tips and explanations of what works and why, From Scratch: Sourdough is the accessible handbook that bakers everywhere have been waiting for.