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A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun: The Autobiography of a Career Criminal | 
 enlarge | Author: Razor Smith
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 47734
Media: Paperback
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0141015799
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780141015798
ASIN: 0141015799
Publication Date: July 28, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Beautifully raw December 11, 2007
J. M. Newland
I'm not a major supporter of the hard-life biography, and it was only through a 'why not?' moment that I got hold of this particular item from Amazon. I was looking for something a bit more generic on incarceration, but thought this would be a good start.
Now, these reviews often just regurgitate the back cover of books like this, so suffice to say that I found it quite fascinating. Yes, there's a bit of glorification about it, but Razor is always keen to bring that flight of fancy back in tow by reminding us that he's none too proud to admit that his take on society relates to environment, not science. A product of the system? Scary prospect indeed, considering a fairly unexceptional start in life. But then, it's not everyone who can do a section 53 and still walk out beaming with irreverence. Nary has there been a more insightful account of the 'short sharp shock'. You often wonder if it was ever aimed as a deterrent, or just a bit of payback.
I loved Razor's account. I loved it because I felt the tiniest glimmer of the emotions that he describes during reading it. Reading his account of the strong box, the psychiatric 'ward', Rochester, Dover et al, you just know that no matter what your level of empathy is, prison is an incredibly stenuous existence, and one that few survive unscathed, and some don't survive at all.
This is not a 'devil with a heart account', but it is excruciatingly honest and self-exploratory. Glorification of the violence of the clink? Entertaining the mind of a villain? Well, if it is, it doesn't come across as that. It's not a money spinner or the last ditch attempt of an inmate wanting to make a mark, nor is it the definitive account of bird. What it is, is one man's account of the path he carved, and had carved for him, some of which happened to be at her Majesty's pleasure. It is chilling, and it certainly makes you think about your own path and your own choices.
Loved it.
THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ THIS YEAR December 3, 2007
Chelli (Yorkshire)
In this brilliantly written captivating autobiography of Razor's it's easy to empathise with him and understand how a bit of petty shoplifting as a kid eventually led to him doing armed robberies and a long prison sentence.
He shows how the heavy handed police brutality of the '70's and the tough Borstal and DC systems didn't work and just made criminals bitter against authorities and society and led to more crime.
Razor writes with honesty and doesn't expect any sympathy,but his account of life as a career criminal will change the way you view crime and punishment forever.
Fascinating read November 16, 2007
Martin (Surrey, UK)
I found this chunky paperback in a charity shop and after a look at the back I thought I would give it a try as I enjoy a bit of true crime now and again.
The other positive reviews here sum it up very well and like them I found it an enjoyable read. A man who has spent years fighting the prison system with his fists and then with the power of words, Smith has a great attention to detail concerning his many exploits in and out of jail.
Having worked in a bank myself I wondered what was going through the mind of someone prepared to carry out a raid, and now I know. It was like a drug to him although there was a big comedown, despite having bundles of money strewn around the living room floor afterwards. Bearing in mind the many years he has spent locked up I'm glad that my bank career path had me sitting on the other side of the counter though.
Recommended
 Genre-busting; a worthwhile read July 27, 2006
John Walsh (Croydon, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The increasing ubiquity of the true crime genre on booksellers' shelves is all too often proof positive of the old adage of the impossibility of losing money by underestimating the intelligence of the general public. This book is, for a number of reasons, a notable exception.
To outline the background, the author was born in South London in the early sixties and took the active decision to become a career criminal in the late seventies. Not one to do things by halves, he opted for the premiership of criminal activity and elected to become an armed robber. The book gives a fairly accurate chronological description of his subsequent activities which, in addition to relieving various banks and businesses of their ready cash, also includes a horrific catalogue of excessive violence and half a life detained at Her Majesty's pleasure.
The first factor that sets this book apart is that there is no ghost writer; the experiences here are genuinely being described first hand . The second is that, although it does adopt the usual infatuation with the kudos of being a hard man and the supposed criminal code of honour, this is taken less and less as a given as Smith's career progresses. It's safe enough to say that few other books of this type are honest enough to draw out the difference in attitude between welcoming a heavy prison sentence with jokes and laughter whilst sitting with the other hard men in the reception block and dissolving into tears when left alone as the door to the solitary cell closes. The third, and possibly most important factor is that Smith, although habitually treated by the prison system as borderline illiterate, writes with a style and passion that belies the nature of the book. For good or ill, he really can write.
For the reader approaching the subject matter with an open mind, it is at once both the absurdity to the background of many of the crimes and the essentially facile reasons for carrying them out that hits home. Thus, Smith's first foray into his chosen specialist crime yields 20 cash and eight copies of the Bay City Rollers' Greatest Hits and he carries out his second totally ignorant of the fact that he has the safety catch engaged on the shotgun. More ludicrous still is that fact that, informed of his error, he subsequently manages to deafen and nearly kill the gang members by taking off the catch, discharging the weapon within a confined space and blowing the roof off the getaway car. In a later episode Smith and an associate spend a day drinking and taking drugs before heading off to murder a rival and are so wasted that very nearly manage to shoot each other and provide their adversary with such an effective advanced announcement of their presence and intentions that they only manage to escape by staggering away wounded themselves. In short, we seem to be looking at a rare beast for this kind of book; the unvarnished truth.
Arrest and imprisonment follow as inevitable consequences and Smith writes with fervour and no little venom of his experiences of the prison system. "Porridge" this isn't and if half of what he says is true, the levels of both casual and extreme violence in prisons during the seventies and eighties were truly horrendous, as was the brutalising effect on both inmates and prison officers. In this respect, Smith takes some credit for securing subsequent improvements as a tireless campaigner for prisoners' rights. As elsewhere, the quality of the writing and research lend significant support to the author's case, not least in the fact that he has taken the trouble to work through his own prison records, helpfully now available through freedom of information legislation.
Although the book is worth reading in itself, the true fascination lies in Smith's privileged position in being able to answer the question as to why he, and others like him, made this particular career choice. Almost inevitably, no definitive answer is provided; rather, the strands of the truth are woven through the text. Although there is some attempt to suggest that social factors had an influence, and in particular police discrimination in his youth, it comes through clearly that the main reasons at first were that crime gave him a buzz and it paid well. However, when Smith looks back on his life critically, which he does with an honesty that at times aspires to painfulness and elicits as much empathy as can be evoked for such a violent character, the answer is much less clear and hints strongly at a feeling of waste for lost opportunities that may in truth never have been.
This is in many ways a remarkable book written by a remarkable character, worthy of a significant measure of respect for his writing abilities. That said, the picture presented means that when he does get released I, for one, would sadly be unlikely to risk having a drink with him.
Fear and Loathing in S.W.2 June 22, 2006
Adrian Stranik (London)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having left South West London twenty five years ago I have, like most of us, wondered what the kids I grew up with are doing now. Up until around `81' I would go back to visit every couple of weeks and the conversation would invariably turn to "Who's in jail?" "Who just got out?" Eventually the question would become "Who's dead?" "Who's alive?"
I remember one of my best friends Noel showing me a paper clipping from the South London Press reporting on his failed stick up of an off-license in Balham. By 1980 that was the way the wind was blowing. As kids we were always involved in some life threatening escapade or another, but it was more for kicks and only occasionally criminal. But by the time half my friends were in remand centres or borstals I knew I was well out of it.
So although it came as a massive surprise, it really shouldn't have, when I recently discovered that the aforementioned Noel is now better known as Razor Smith and is currently serving life for armed robbery.
Smith has shot, slashed and robbed his way into gangland legend. Before his life sentence he was the frightener in a gang of four known as the `Laughing Bank Robbers' who carried out a string of bank raids around South London, he has fifty eight criminal convictions to his name and has now chosen to write his autobiography - "A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun."
Described by G.Q magazine as "One of the most powerful and intelligent crime memoirs we've ever read" and "extraordinary" by the Guardian, I just thought it plain surreal to be standing in the middle of Waterstones seeing my name included in the `lavishly blood splattered' memoirs of a major career criminal. Names, places, incidents, half forgotten friends and enemies and even my brother all contextualised in the pre-teen remembrances of a kid I took my first and only pinch with. (For messing around on a railway track - ironically) And although Smith is no killer and I'm certainly no choirboy - I felt like Pat O'Briens's priest from the movie `Angels With Dirty Faces' reading about the gangster exploits of his boyhood chum Rocky Sullivan played by James Cagney. In fact we were all Cagney fanatics in those days, endlessly acting out scenes from White Heat or Public Enemy on the roof tops of Streatham High Road.
The book goes on to outline various `tear ups' between all those old sub-cultures of the late 70's such as the Rockabilly's, Skinheads, Punks, Smoothies and Teds which culminated in, perhaps, some of the most notorious pre-gun gang wars such as `The Battle of Morden,' `The White Swan Massacre,' and the seemingly fortnightly riots at the Chickaboom Club in Carlshalton. But by the time most of these incidents took place I was lost in music and Razor had gone the way of the gun.
As I say, we all wonder about what happened to the kids we grew up with. I just never thought I'd find out in such a spectacular fashion.
Noel `Razor' Smith is currently residing in HMP Grendon.
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