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Peaky Blinders: The Real Story
- Peaky Blinders, Book 1
- Narrated by: Carl Chinn
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
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Peaky Blinders: The Real Story
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Summary
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
The Peaky Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused with drama and dread. Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but deeply flawed Shelby family blind enemies by slashing them with the disposable safety razor blades stitched in to the peaks of their flat caps, as they fight bloody gangland wars involving Irish terrorists and the authorities led by a devious Home Secretary, Winston Churchill.
But who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist?
Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author, Carl Chinn, has spent decades searching them out. Now he reveals the true story of the notorious Peaky Blinders, one of whom was his own great grandfather and, like the Shelbys, his grandfather was an illegal bookmaker in back-street Birmingham.
In this gripping social history, Chinn shines a light on the rarely reported struggles of the working class in one of the great cities of the British Empire before the First World War. The story continues after 1918 as some Peaky Blinders transformed into the infamous Birmingham Gang. Led by the real Billy Kimber, they fought a bloody war with the London gangsters Darby Sabini and Alfie Solomon over valuable protection rackets extorting money from bookmakers across the booming postwar racecourses of Britain.
Drawing together a remarkably wide-range of original sources, including interviews with relatives of the 1920s gangsters, Peaky Blinders: The Real Story adds a new dimension to the true history of Birmingham's underworld and fact behind its fiction.
Learn more in Book 2 'Peaky Blinders: The Legacy' also now available in audiobook!
What listeners say about Peaky Blinders: The Real Story
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Miss NEM
- 22-03-22
Too Shouty
For some reason Carl felt the need to shout every quoted sentence. And there were a *lot* of quotes.
It had the potential to be really good, but there was a lot of repetition and the narrating was just too grating. Unfortunately, I didn't finish it.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Simon
- 20-03-22
Interesting
Interesting aspect of social history, which is over glamourised by the TV series. If your interested in social history listen, if you think it's the book of the TV series don't.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Craig
- 29-01-20
Loosing Interest due to story line.
I don't really know where to start! Carl Chinn decided to narrate his own book.... but I wish he had received guidance. Whilst his native "twang" shines through and adds some atmosphere to the story, ever now and then he ends up suddenly shouting!!! I also got the impression that while he's done good research, he tends to use every paper cutting he can, rather than tell the story his own way. I will say that it seems to tell you the BBC have taken some liberty with the truth and converted the true story into something more fantastic rather than true to life because the true story is pretty boring. So...... Moving swiftly on........ 😑
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Laird
- 18-10-19
Interesting Story
Very enjoyable relating of the facts behind the drama tv series. Thoroughly enjoyed the book and the narration while rather over dramatic at times did not distract from the tale
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- mrs k.
- 06-10-22
Stop shouting
Informative book but why did narrator feel he had to shout and get too excited when reading quotes 🤦🏼♂️
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tim Bickerdike
- 16-11-22
Glad Carl was the Narrator
This was a great story, so much more than the TV series. Having a narrator who is local to the area covered by the book really brings it alive. I recently had to stop listening to two books due to an awful narration, this has been a breath of fresh air.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 03-10-21
not a bad read
not a bad read(listen) found narrator annoying through out as he read quotes people made
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Aaron
- 07-07-22
just wasn't for me.
it's ok in places. the narrator didn't do good for me. maybe should have been a brummie reading.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jasmine
- 23-09-19
Brilliant
Loved this book. It's filled with interesting accounts of the time. I listened to this with my husband and we both enjoyed the content and discussed the topics in the book relating them to recent events in the media at this time. We would both recommend this wholeheartedly.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Matthew Anderson
- 03-02-20
Real time Peaky Blinders
Very good and interesting listen and a good insight to see where the series had come from despite the book being so different from the series with it being full of real life events from history records.
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1 person found this helpful