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Gang War | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Walsh
Publisher: Milo Books
Category: Book
List Price: £15.99
Buy Used: £1.98
You Save: £14.01 (88%)
New (1) Used (11) Collectible (3) from £1.98
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 145899
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.6
ISBN: 1903854156
EAN: 9781903854150
ASIN: 1903854156
Publication Date: April 1, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
a sad but true account August 22, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a pointless waste of life for these gang members! I work in the criminal justice system in Manchester and I think I'm wasting my time. The amazing thing about those involved in the gang culture is the surprisingly limited geographical and social spread of their activities. Granted there'll always be the odd dreadful violent incident which includes someone who's nothing to do with the whole thing who lives nowhere near the place but in the main, a lot of the activity takes place within specific enclaves.
Let them carry on shooting each other; it's social Darwinism at its best as long as they don't go outside of Manchester... which they don't, maybe because they don't know which bus to get on!
 The Sound of Silence September 18, 2004
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book attempts something new; an American perspective on British criminal behaviour. From early biographical references to the Moss Side folks bringing the culture of the machete from the sugar plantations of Jamaica, to the later suggestions of political dabbling on the part of certain characters across town (Salford), we are faced with a half-revealed, semi-exhillarating expose of what is alleged to be Britain's Premier Gangster League. Unfortunately, Mr Walsh's subjects are too real for us to glean any genuine information from his work; he is scared. Scared of repercussions from the Mob; scared of charges that may be levelled at him from characters who haven't been tried and convicted - slander - and perhaps scared of extinguishing what appears to be the first flowering of an accessible "real-time" reporting of a British involvement in international underground criminal activity. The Empire has crumbled, and we are forced to join the rest of the world on the B-side of commerce, while America enjoys its fruits. To try to do a New York "Mafia" work of non-fiction takes balls of steel in a country like England. Walsh succeeds in reporting the things the police know about, but probably refrains from reporting the word on the street, regardless of how true that word may be. He seems to have a (deserved) soft spot for the hard-men of Salford, who likely represent a unique, Italian-style honour system in all of Britain, and his descriptions of their exploits are worth the price of the book alone. The automatic-machine-pistol exploits of Cheetham Hill and The Moss are vital in the story of how black youths have established their role in English criminal society, but it is the Salford story that people have/are been/being fascinated by. In an age when we need English criminal heroes, it is a shame that one man, Paul Massey, is the only spirit in England who can deliver the goods. Salford's Godfather surfaces throughout this book, embroidering its pages like a thick-necked sea-monster, with his intelligent and humorous quotes, and you cannot help but love him. Salford is and always has been very New York-like, in its architecture and proximity to the Atlantic. There is a quality there, of loyalty, honour, hardness and co-operation. It is the backbone of this book, and it is a shame Walsh was unable to tell the full story. Maybe in another fifty years...
Frighteningly real January 31, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
When I heard about this book I just had to go out and buy it. I was one of the clubbers who frequented Manchester clubs from the early 80's through to the mid 90's, when I'd heard a lot about the conflicts going on in and around the city. On reading it I was shocked to find that these disturbances were far more widespread and devastatingly violent than I could possibly have imagined. It's a real account of the battles played out on inner city streets by characters who had nothing else to occupy their time. Drugs, money, girls, all surface as causes for the acts of extreme violence portrayed in this book. A damn good read!
GANG WAR - WORLD WAR THREE January 21, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I actaully went into HMV looking for a CD but emerged with this book instead. Dont judge a book by its cover a lot of people say but with this one it was hard to do. A lot of the stuff inside it i found I could relate to being from Manchester myself. The one thing that scared me the most was the estate next to me being branded as a ' gooch style spin off ' and that helped the impact of manchester gun crime hit home. It was sad to hear of the people pointlessly losing there lives and at times this book did feel like a crime writers fiction effort but this was stark reality and this book highlights it documenting the 20 year war that still rages on.
Machester IS a scary place! December 19, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book, I found it well structured, researched and informative. Maybe I was a touch naive, but I never fully appreciated the extent of gun crime in Manchester's inner city areas and always considered Liverpool to be the chief "offender" in the North. What frightened me the most was the sheer pointlessness of much of the "hits" and violence portrayed by Walsh and the seemingly ineffective police approach until political/community pressure was applied. This comes strongly recommended and is a gripping mass of gang and drug culture, and of political and communal struggle against the street wars. Overall, very interesting and equally disturbing.
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