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The Criminal Alphabet
The Criminal Alphabet
Dec 22, 2024 12:38 AM

Author:Noel 'Razor' Smith

The Criminal Alphabet

The ultimate guide to the criminal world through its slang - from insults to terms of respect, weapons to injuries, crimes to punishment

'I have spent almost 33 of the last 53 years in and out of prison, but mainly in. I was a juvenile offender back in the mid 1970s and went on to become an adult prisoner in the 1980s and beyond. My shortest prison sentence was 7 days (for criminal damage) and my longest sentence was life (for bank robbery and possession of firearms). I have 58 criminal convictions for everything from attempted theft to armed robbery and prison escape, and I was a career criminal for most of my life. What I do not know about criminal and prison slang could be written on the back of a postage stamp and still leave room for The Lord's Prayer . . . '

From ex-professional bank robber and best-selling author Noel Smith, this is the most authoritative dictionary of criminal slang out there - and an absorbing journey, through words, into the heart of the criminal world.

Reviews

His writing ... has changed the way many of us see the world ... Berger has that rare and wonderful gift of being able to make complex thoughts simple

—— Kate Kellaway , Observer

John Berger teaches us how to think, how to feel, how to stare at things till we see what we thought wasn't there. But above all he teaches us how to love in the face of adversity. He is a master

—— Arundhati Roy

One of the greatest thinkers in postwar Britain

—— Guardian

He handles thoughts the way an artist handles paint

—— Jeanette Winterson

Berger is terrific ... Brilliant

—— Scotsman

A remarkable, textured education in what it means to be made up of different parts, of light and dark places, and of worlds that we know, and that we don't. Yomi Sode is a beautiful storyteller who pieces it all together

—— Candice Carty-Williams, author of PEOPLE PERSON

I don't think I've ever read such a heartbreaking collection as this angry but deeply vulnerable and tender portrait of Black masculinity. Manorism rages, yet plays with its urgent themes, mixing Yoruba with colloquial speech in a luscious mix of registers and references, from Caravaggio to Mr Marcus, inventing new ways to describe generational trauma and what it's like to endure racism. This debut is the living heart and soul of contemporary poetry

—— Pascale Petit, author of TIGER GIRL

In his juxtapositions of paintings, black urban life and media, he makes us think of what poetry can be: that the book itself is the poem, and each topic a stanza in a bigger epiphany ... A must for all lovers of poetry and its power

—— Roger Robinson, author of A PORTABLE PARADISE

When I speak of justice and anger written with luminous genius, I will forever be speaking of Yomi Sode's Manorism, a glorious, furious collection that tells a thousand stories in stunningly crafted verse. A triumph that everyone should read

—— Nikita Gill, author of GREAT GODDESSES and WILD EMBERS

Manorism is a stunning debut collection. Yomi Sode's poems examine the various lenses observing the black body in Britain, the implications of its passage between class, cultural and racial spaces. His words are indelible . . . rich with images that shake your core and a sharpness in its technicality. Manorism is a classic

—— Caleb Femi, author of POOR

Manorism is a work of sincerity that cuts deep. It's a work that is at once comprehensive and incredibly personal. Reading it I felt my heartbeat change pace, faster and slower. The book is about families, society, being Black in Britain, being a cousin, a nephew, a son and the hope for the future that being a father brings. Yomi is a griot, a voice in which we can hear the ancestors, a voice for now and a prophet of future possibilities

—— Arike Oke, Executive Director of Knowledge and Collections, BFI

This is a such an important collection. Yomi Sode's debut articulates the most subtle nuances of Black British Masculinity with a breathtaking vulnerability. Truly, Manorism is something new - an interrogation of realities that have been too often ignored, through the lens of experiences that have been pushed into the margins . . . [It] bring[s] the full humanity of Blackness into the centre, through poetry that pushes at boundaries while inviting you in

—— Jeffrey Boakye, author of I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID and BLACK, LISTED

Manorism. A Black British Diasporic way of being. A sense of place. A posture . . . Yomi Sode interrogates this sociocultural phenomenon, looking at masculinity, intergenerational violence and historical legacy . . . This is a British continuation of the conversation Claudia Rankine started . . . These are necessary poems: poems as prayer songs, poems as testimony

—— Malika Booker, author of PEPPER SEED

A brilliant ode to the mandem

—— Femi Oyeniran

Manorism is filled with poetry of a breath held, a fist clenched and held behind the back, the knockout beckoning always. An ambitious and adventurous debut, brimming with heart

—— Nii Ayikwei Parkes, author of TAIL OF THE BLUE BIRD

The birth of a new poetic storyteller

—— Nick Makoha, author of THE DARK

Yomi is not ramping. This is a rich, nuanced, emotional collection. I read about myself and my people, felt an affinity in the expression of experiences we share and felt feelings only we feel. Thank you for this, Yomi

—— Jade LB, author of KEISHA THE SKET

Both sharp-eyed and rich with complex feeling, Manorism is an exquisite collection

—— Nadia Owusu, author of AFTERSHOCKS

Part-confession, part-conjuring and wholly unique, Yomi Sode's debut collection is unflinching. As he writes, "Our stories are open wounds." ?ode takes us on a visceral journey, spilling secrets nakedly, not allowing us to look away from the hard truth. And we're better for it

—— Peter Kahn, author of LITTLE KINGS

An incredibly poignant and layered collection that masterfully graduates from the past, roots us in the present and speaks to the ages all at once. Manorism is a striking, visceral voyage between cultures, languages and histories in ode to the precious lives of Black boys and men

—— Sofia Akel

I think one day, Yomi Sode's Manorism will be required reading for a generation of young Black men. [This book is h]is widescreen and expansive examination of what it's like to navigate the complexities of British society as a Black man. From the moments of triumph to those of bleak loss, Sode brings poetic brilliance to the collection's entire range of subject matter

—— Athian Akec, Youth MP for Camden

A breathtaking and tender exploration of Black boyhood, manhood, fatherhood and grief

—— Aniefiok Ekpoudom

A work of formal experimentation, where lyric essays nestle against play-let structures, in service of a Claudia Rankine-esque determination to bear witness and find frameworks with which we can look at the world properly, fully ... Brilliant ... It's like fireworks going off ... Sode is unflinching and fearless ... Manorism's real gift to us as readers is, ultimately, Sode's deep and unfailing humanity. This is a book in which love can be found

—— Rishi Dastidar , Poetry School Blog

Yomi Sode's Manorism has both its feet planted firmly on the ground - but as a collection, it spends much of its existence split between various opposing worlds of imagination: Black and white, past and present, peaceful and chaotic . . . It forces readers to question what violence we consider beautiful, which victims worthy of framing and hanging on a white wall? . . . Manorism cuts to the quick, openly daring readers to look at the blood spilled within its pages . . . [It] gleams like a whittled blade

—— Ariana Benson , Magma Poetry

A decidedly fun history.... Dennis Duncan's enthusiasm for the subject matter shines through the many witticisms and illustrations as he shows how something so seemingly small has been so vital to western literature

—— Erica Ezeifedi , BookRiot

After reading Dennis Duncan's delightful history of the tool, you'll never forget to check the index again ... indexes have shaped the way we communicate and engage with power. They might even have saved lives along the way

—— TIME Magazine *Book of the Year*

Clever, sprightly ... Duncan is a brilliantly illuminating and wide-ranging guide

—— Fara Dabhoiwala , New York Review of Books
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