Carl Chinn - Peaky Blinders. The Real Gangs and Gangsters

We are so happy to announce that local legend, Carl Chinn, will be joining us for an event for his latest book Peaky Blinders. The Real Gangs and Gangsters. This event will be held at The Heath Bookshop.

Carl will talk about his book for around 45 minutes and will then take questions from you! This will be followed by a book signing.

Professor Carl Chinn MBE DL Ph.D. F.Birm.Soc. is a social historian with a national profile, writer, teacher, and public speaker. His writings and broadcasting are deeply affected by his family’s working-class background and life in the back-to-backs of Birmingham, and he is resolute in his belief that history must be democratised because each and every person has made their mark upon history and has a story to tell. Carl is the author of 35 books, amongst them studies of working-class housing, urban working-class life, poorer working-class women’s lives, manufacturing, Birmingham, the Black Country, illegal bookmaking, and ethnic minorities.

His latest works make it clear that real gangsters are not glamorous anti-heroes but unsavoury men who prey upon their own. That reality is to the fore of Peaky Blinders: The Real Story. The true history of Birmingham’s most notorious gangs (2019), a Sunday Times number 1 bestseller which has been translated into fifteen languages; Peaky Blinders: The Legacy. The real story of Britain’s most notorious 1920s gangs (2020); and Peaky Blinders: The Aftermath: The real story behind the next generation of British gangsters (2021). His latest book is Peaky Blinders. The Real Gangs and Gangsters (Blink 2025).

Peaky Blinders: The Real Gangs and Gangsters

You know who the Peaky Blinders are ... It's time to see where they began.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Birmingham was seemingly transforming into a wealthy, bustling metropolis, celebrated for its manufacturing and local government. Yet behind this optimistic facade, the poorest and most vulnerable in society were abandoned. This longstanding inequality aroused unrest, sparking violence and terror from backstreet gangsters who'd become known as peaky blinders.

In this fourth instalment of the bestselling series, historian Carl Chinn draws upon his decades of expertise and his own family history to reveal even more about these notorious gangs, going back to where it all began. Chinn exposes the real people whose bloody feuds, murders and maiming, baiting of police officers, bullying of the decent poor, gendered violence, blackmailing, and disturbing roles in political riots and racist attacks made Birmingham infamous as the city of the Peaky Blinders.

Peaky Blinders: The Real Gangs and Gangsters is a vivid and shocking portrait of Birmingham through the Victorian and Edwardian eras, unpicking the storied history of its vicious gangs to reveal how they forced themselves into notoriety.

  
This event will take place at The Heath Bookshop and tickets are on sale now.

We look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire