Heists, history, and lady gangsters! Ever heard of Alice Diamond? She was a crime boss who led The Forty Elephants, a notorious all lady shoplifting ring in 1920s London. Sarah MacLean has said her Hell’s Belles series was loosely inspired by The Forty Elephants. I’ve been lowkey obsessed with Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants ever since. A new take on Alice’s story, Queens of London by Heather Webb, is out today.
In a time when most crime bosses were men, Alice and the Forty Elephants are surviving and thriving by robbing department stores and fencing the goods. I really enjoyed Heather Webb’s take on Annie. She is tough-as-nails, bordering on tyrannical. And at first she seems like a bad boss, on a level I haven’t seen in other histfic on her. But I suspect this portrayal is probably closer to real life.
And pitted against Lillian Wyles, one of the Metropolitan Police’s first lady detectives, Alice’s got her hands full as she orchestrates one big job after another to fund a dormitory for her girls. Because while you have to be a bad b-tch to make it, Annie also won’t stand for her girls being abused by their husbands/boyfriends.
Detective Wyles is fighting her own battles against the patriarchy as she works to prove herself and make space for women detectives at the Met. Bringing down the Elephants just might earn her some real respect from her bosses.
But it’s Hira, a young runaway who gets in league with the Elephants, whose storyline really sets Queens of London apart. She blunts some of Annie’s sharp edges and brings some hope to what is otherwise a hard scrabble existence on the streets of London.
Pick this one up if you loved Peaky Blinders and women-led heist films like the 355 or Oceans 8. Even if you’ve read other histfic about Alice Diamond, Queens of London is different enough, especially with the Hira storyline, to make it worth your time.
4 stars
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If you find yourself as obsessed as I am with Alice and the girls, check out The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe. While Queens of London catches up with Alice already running the show, The Forty Elephants is more about her rise from child pickpocket to queenpin.