The Devil's Dozen - Sources

Violence, love, loyalty and betrayal among the smugglers who terrorise the coasts of southern England.  For years the Aldington Blues and the Burmarsh Gang have fought each other over the lucrative smuggling trade in Kent.  The rivalry was bitter and the stakes were high.  Now the feud between the two smuggler leaders, George Ransley and James Hogben, is played out in deadly earnest. While their men grow rich, fall in love or gamble away their loot, the intense struggle between Ransley and Hogben follows a twisted route through bloodshed, treachery and wealth. But times are changing and the spectre of the gallows hangs over them all when a popular naval officer is killed by a smuggler. As the government men close in, the gangs join forces. But will it be enough to stave off defeat, capture and death?Meticulously researched and based on contemporary court papers and other records, “A Devil’s Dozen”

recreates the vanished world of the smugglers who were once the kings of the British underworld.

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 The Sources

If you’d like to know more about the world of the Aldington Blues, these may interest you.

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