Bright Young Things discussion

I nominated Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller by Sean O'Connor for our January 2015 non-fiction read. I tried to come up with something a bit out of the ordinary and thought this book might appeal to many here at BYT. Despite apparent enthusiasm for Crime and Mystery here at BYT this book, about a real criminal, indeed a murderer, from our era, did not find favour in the poll, however Susan and Pink both expressed an interest, Susan stating she is up for doing it as a hot read, so here's a thread for anyone that wants to read and discuss it.



Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller by Sean O'Connor

Handsome Brute explores the facts of a once-renowned, now little-remembered British murder case, the killings of the charming, but deadly ex-RAF playboy Neville Heath.

Since the 1940s, Heath has generally been dismissed as a sadistic sex-killer - the preserve of sensational Murder Anthologies - and little else. But the story behind the tabloid headlines reveals itself to be complex and ambiguous, provoking unsettling questions that echo across the decades to the present day.

For the first time, with access to previously restricted files from the Home Office and Metropolitan Police, this book explores the complex motivations behind the murders through the prism of the immediate post-war period.

Against the backdrop of a society in flux, a culture at a moment of change, how much is Heath's case symptomatic, or indeed, emblematic of the age he lived in?

Handsome Brute is both an examination of the age of austerity, and a real-life thriller as shocking and provocative as American Psycho or The Killer Inside Me, exploring the perspectives of the women in Heath's life - his wife, his mother, his lovers - and his victims.

This collage of experiences from the women who knew him intimately probes the schism at the heart of his fascinating, chilling personality.

This book is about Neville Heath, and Neville Heath was the inspiration for Ernest Gorse (of The Gorse Trilogy: The West Pier, Mr Stimpson And Mr Gorse, Unknown Assailant by (one of my literary heroes) Patrick Hamilton. Heath...Gorse...geddit?

I should get to this book sometime in December or January.

Here's to a great discussion.

Yes, will definitely read this. A December start sounds good to me. Thanks for setting up the thread.

^ My pleasure Susan - I am really looking forward to it.


I am just trying to work out what I have to read and when. Unhelpfully lots of books I have ordered from the library have arrived, and others have also reserved them, so I have to prioritise those titles.

#toomuchtoread

I have a lot of NetGalley books, but I will certainly make time for this.

I am looking for this book at our little library. It sounds quite interesting.

^ I'd love to read your thoughts Jill. I noticed a few days ago that my library has a copy (hurrah!)

Our library is so small since I live in rural WV that they probably won't have it .......but I can go to the main library which is not too far away since they might. I hope so.

My library system doesn't have it.

I have just started this and enjoying it immensely. Nice to see that Patrick Hamilton gets a brief mention in the introduction Nigeyb :)

The author makes some interesting points about post war Britain, and the author has an engaging style. I downloaded it on kindle - I love true crime and this is a keeper.

Not available on Kindle here.

Thanks for the update Susan. I thought it would be a good read and I'm pleased to learn that you're enjoying it immensely

Susan wrote: "I love true crime and this is a keeper."

Hurrah.

I won't get to it until December, or possibly early January. Can't wait.

Susan wrote: "Nice to see that Patrick Hamilton gets a brief mention in the introduction Nigeyb :)"

Even better.

Jan C wrote: "Not available on Kindle here."


I'm sorry to hear that Jan. I'm sure it was when I nominated it. I always try and find books that are easy to get in both the UK and the US. Perhaps it has been withdrawn?

^ I just thought I'd double check and I found it...


http://www.amazon.com/Handsome-Brute-...

At the time of writing it's $5.73 for the Kindle edition

There's a second hand hard back copy for a couple of bucks too.

Nigeyb wrote: "^ I just thought I'd double check and I found it...


http://www.amazon.com/Handsome-Brute-......"

No, it doesn't show up on kindle here.

How weird. The link is to the US site. The British site has the .co.uk suffix. The US site is .com It's clearly showing up when I look at it.

I didn't realise someone in the UK could buy Kindle books off the US site but that those books are not available in the US.

Can you see the rest of the info as pasted below...?

Formats
Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $5.73 -- --
Hardcover -- -- $2.08
Paperback -- $7.13 $0.79

Are the other options available (see above and cut and pasted from the site) for US BYTers who decide to read this book? The hardcover? The paperback? Are the prices the same?

Per the website: Both hardcover and paperback are available used - from $2.08 and $.79, respectively. No kindle available.

Nigeyb, if you are in the UK you cannot buy kindle books from the US site. Whether in book form or kindle though, it's a great read and thanks for suggesting it. I'm only about a quarter of the way through, but really enjoying it.

^ Thanks Jan. Thanks Susan.

It doesn't surprise me that you cannot buy Kindle books from the US site in the UK. What I don't understand is why this book shows as available on Kindle on the US site when viewed from the UK, but not when viewed in the US. It makes no sense.

I am so pleased that you continue to enjoy this book Susan.

I agree with you, Nigeyb. I also get confused when I search the .com site because it looks as though things are available and they are not.

I just ordered the book on e-Bay. It just looks too good to pass up.

This is my review, for what it is worth:

This true crime book looks at Neville George Clevely Heath, tried for murder in 1946. As well as looking at his crimes, this is almost a social history of post-war Britain and the writing is so vivid, that you really do feel that time come alive. Heath is largely forgotten now, but at the time of his trial, his story caused a media furore. Indeed, Heath himself followed the news stories about himself, while he was ‘hiding’ successfully in Bournemouth .

Heath himself was an enigma. Intelligent, handsome, brave and a serial liar, he spent virtually his entire life feeling he could talk himself out of trouble. Time and again, from childhood onwards, he passed off misdeeds as foolish, rather than criminal; talking himself into second chances with parents, teachers, those in positions of authority and senior officers, and usually winning people around with his charm and seeming good nature. Although the author is totally unbiased in his approach, he does not just explain what Heath did, but give reasons why he might have behaved that way. He also addresses the way Heath’s victims, particularly Margery Gardner, was portrayed by an unsympathetic press, looking for sensationalism rather than the truth.

Having read this extremely intelligent and well written book, I cannot help feeling that the whole of Heath’s life was a tragedy – for his family, himself, and, of course, his victims. The England that Heath returned to in 1946 was eager for change, but bankrupt, exhausted and with virtually everything – from food, to petrol to clothing – rationed. Men returned from war and were expected to step back into their pre-war life as though nothing had happened. Women, who had coped with bombing and war work on their own, were expected to return to domesticity. Some, like Margery Gardener, found the freedom of life during the war left her stranded with the harsh consequences of no security, once peace returned. Life was supposed to go back to what it had been, but those experiences had changed people. Heath was a man who always wanted better – a fantasist, a man who constantly lied and evaded the consequences of his actions without repentance.

If you enjoy true crime, particularly historical true crime, you will undoubtedly find this book fascinating. The author recreates Heath’s life, following him from England to South Africa and ending with the aftermath of his trial. He is always fair, almost documentary like in telling the story from the point of view of everyone involved, and in explaining events clearly and with great respect. A wonderful portrait of a forgotten era and of a case which held a nation enthralled.

5 stars and highly recommended. Thank you Nigeyb.

Susan wrote: "Thank you Nigeyb. "


And thank you Susan. A magnificent review.

I picked up my copy this very day. I have a couple of other books to read before it however I hope to read it sometime in December. My enthusiasm is markedly increased by your glowing, thoughtful review.

^ I think you should Val - you know you want to!

^ Me too

I just ordered it from Powell's. They didn't have it last time I checked but maybe I checked wrong.

Of course, it will come too late to read this month. Probably arrive after I've left for Christmas in the Southland next week.

I just received the book from eBay and have already started it. I'm not far in but it is good already!!! Good choice Nigeyb

^ Thanks Jill. I read the introduction last night. Very interesting - in particular the notion that post WW2 a bunch of trained killers were returning en masse, back to their homes, along with an apparent increased public taste for more sadistic murders (a trend that has arguably continued since the mid 1940s).

Anyway, so far, provocative and well written. I look forward to getting properly stuck in.

Just read the Prologue. Amazing to that if Pauline Brees had chosen to prosecute Heath then three lives might have been saved.

Yes, he just kept getting away with things - talking his way out, didn't he? From childhood in fact, quite extraordinary lying and cheating. Yet, he had charm and it worked.

He was a very smooth operator. Plus the world was rather up-side down after the War and was a perfect environment for a "lady killer". In his case that term is literal.

As Nigeyb points out, the prologue sets the scene well.

This book gets better and better. What a very twisted man who charmed one and all.

^ I completely agree Jill - and what I also find particularly satisfying is how Sean O'Connor manages to add in so much historical information and period detail. Fascinating.

I am about 100 pages in now and still really enjoying this book.


The biographies of the main players are fascinating. The slip from gentility to bohemianism/penury for Margery Gardner. The family bankrupcy at the heart of Reginald Spooner (aka "Britain's greatest detective") and his ongoing sense of duty and fear of financial insecurity. And, more generally, how the war so fundamentally changed British society, criminality, morality etc.

A fascinating book.

That is one of the best features of the book.....the setting of the post-war environment and the rise of crime. It is not unusual that Heath has basically been forgotten in the wake of such horrors as Brady and Hindley.....so I didn't know much about him. But I will now.

Margery Gardner was a sad case, wasn't she. Such a perfect target for Heath.

Jill wrote: "Margery Gardner was a sad case, wasn't she. Such a perfect target for Heath."


Absolutely. The section about her reminded me of that book by Jean Rhys we read back in 2012 called Voyage in the Dark. I seem to recall I was one of just a few who thought highly of it, anyway Anna, the central character, arrived in England from the West Indies and so had to adapt to a new country, a new culture, and a society that was changing fast. Her story reminds me of the profound and widespread societal changes described by Sean O'Connor in Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller.

Like Anna, Margery Gardner is ill equipped to deal with her change in circumstances and most of the men she meets want something from her and in the process leave her more damaged. As Sean O'Connor observes the increase in sexual freedom was frequently a double-edged sword particularly for some women.

The author manages to make all the main characters sympathetic - even Heath himself in some ways. I totally agree that he also paints a very realistic portrait of post-war Britain - bankrupt, suffering endless restrictions and rationing and so many damaged men returning from war and expected to just slot back into society.

^ Quite agree Susan.


I am picking up so many fascinating new pieces of information from this book. Here's an example, I had never realised that, until shortly before WW2, the RAF was part of the Army, and that once it became a separate service it developed a very distinct and different culture, and attracted a very different type of individual. Typically their recruits were relatively casual, relaxed, unconventional etc and v different from the senior services (army and navy). Also their dress and language, which we now regard as a cartoonish stereotype, silk scarves, pencil moustaches, and of course the slang...

http://natureonline.com/37/56-ap4-glo...

...were all louche, daring and very fashionable at the time, and part of their glamorous distinctiveness. The "fashion of dissent" as Sean O'Connor refers to it.

We might consider a book on the RAF for a non-fiction choice at some point. I am sure there must be some great accounts out there.

Sean O'Connor makes reference to "Winged Squadrons' by Cecil Beaton in his references which includes some of these photos...

http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog...

...and also Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop


Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop

With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda is one of my favorites about the RAF. An excellent book.

^ Thanks Jill. I'll have a look at that.

I've read a couple on the Battle of Britain and recall reading how pilots were treated as superstars for a time. It must have been really hard to adjust to peace time. I know my own mother told me she recalls my grandmother being quite disappointed when her husband returned! No more dancing or going out with her friends - she lost the factory job she did in the war as men needed the jobs, so she had less money. So, it was hard for the women too.

There is also
Bomber Boys: Fighting Back, 1940-1945 by Patrick Bishop.
I have not read it, but it gets good ratings on Amazon.co.uk.
(The same author also wrote Fighter Boys.)

Val wrote: "I read the foreword this morning, then felt a little daunted when I saw the huge cast of characters..."


I'd forgotten that bit. Anyway, fear not Val, it is very well written and easy to follow, and also simple to keep track of the various characters. Though I should add I am only about halfway through so it's possible my assessment might change - though I doubt it.

I was inspired to pick up a copy of Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan out of the library having come across the reference to it in Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller.

Heath and Behan both inmates at the same time made for an interesting coincidence.

Anyone read Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan? If so, what's it like. The reviews are very positive.

Heartbreaking to read about Doreen Marshall and her close knit family who were so relieved at all surviving the war but unaware of the dreadful tragedy that would yet visit the family so soon afterwards.

I finished the book last night........very interesting indeed. Was Heath insane? The court was using the M'Naughton Rule and by the guidelines of that legal precedent, he was not. But.........was his defense adequate, were the right witnesses called, etc. etc. The horrible methods he used in the murders certainly indicate someone out of control but is that insanity? The book raised a lot of questions which I'm afraid will never be answered. A good but disturbing read.

He would be more likely to be considered insane now perhaps. The difference in sentence between 'sane' and 'insane' is less since we got rid of the death penalty. He would spend his sentence in either a secure mental facility or a prison. In the prison he would have a greater chance of eventual release.

Thanks Jill, and thanks Val. I am poised to finish the book, and should do so today.


Picking up on Jill's question about his sanity, I'd say there's no doubt that Heath's defence was woefully inadequate and there appears to be a strong argument that he was insane despite being able to appear sane for much of his life.

From his earliest days he was a fantasist and prone to impetuous and ill conceived acts of crime, the majority of which he got away with due to a mixture of his contrition and charm.

His personality could not match his inflated ambitions and so his "career" was a succession of disappointments. These setbacks probably exacerbated an already fragile psyche. Add in the stress of his wartime bombing raids, the breakdown of his marriage in South Africa, and the huge quantities of alcohol he consumed (both murders were also preceded by significant quantities of alcohol) and you have an explosive and murderous cocktail.

Possibly the most obvious indicator of his insanity was his reaction during and after the trial. He didn't care if he lived or died which suggests that, at the very least, he was suffering from depression.

Sean O'Connor's assertion that Heath's mental state and crimes were a product of his era is persuasive. They were certainly emblematic of the age he lived through and I suspect he would not have committed them had he been born twenty years earlier or twenty years later.

As Jill states, a disturbing read - but also very well written, and it all makes for a fascinating, complex, provocative and ambiguous tale.

The context of Britain and South Africa before, during and just after the war is as interesting as the character of Heath himself, if not more so.
His erratic or aberrant behaviour does seem to have worried several people at times, even when things were generally going well for him and when some unusual or stress-related behaviour was considered normal in the circumstances (such as when he was a bomber pilot).

^ Thanks Val. Sagely words - as ever.


Val wrote: "The context of Britain and South Africa before, during and just after the war is as interesting as the character of Heath himself, if not more so."

I agree. One of the strengths of the book is the fascinating information about Britain and South Africa during Heath's era. I learned a lot from this book which is saying something given that I've read quite a bit about the era.

Val wrote: "His erratic or aberrant behaviour does seem to have worried several people at times, even when things were generally going well for him and when some unusual or stress-related behaviour was considered normal in the circumstances (such as when he was a bomber pilot)."

Absolutely. It's a shame that Squadron Leader Fielding-Johnson did not get to testify in court (dying a few days before) as he had clearly observed Heath's erratic behaviour on a number of occasions, most notably after bailing out over Holland, and his testimony would probably have been very revealing.