Con man, royal biographer, tell-all memoirist
Netley Lucas had one more trick up his sleeve. He earned himself a historian who could explain how confidence men changed their era and why modern life itself became a racket. Through back-breaking detective work and an exposition that is both impeccable in its scholarship and playfully imaginative, Houlbrook exposes how Lucas and his ilk ... Read moreexploited the new possibilities of a world reeling from the devastation of World War I. A dazzlingly inventive and exceptionally canny book.
Deborah Cohen, author of Family Secrets Houlbrook plunged down the historical rabbit hole to follow Netley Lucas, and, in an astonishing feat of historical detective work, using everything from court records and newspaper reports to publishers' archives and the correspondence of the royal household, found that this elusive figure adopted nearly forty different names and identities across his life. . . . All those interested in interwar cultures of crime and punishment, the development of popular journalism and life-writing, and the representation of the modern monarchy, will find this a rich, provocative, and memorable work.
Twentieth Century British History This is far more than a biography. It is a portrait of a period in transition which Houlbrook describes as an 'age of disguise.' His book is theoretically aware, meticulously researched, and brimming with insights into both the interwar years and this unscrupulous yet remarkable figure for whom identity was as fluid and fleeting as quicksilver.
Guardian This is an intriguing account not only of a con man, but of the social milieu that enabled him to thrive.
Times Higher Education It takes only a few pages of Houlbrook's dense and absorbing chronicle to confirm that, as a confidence trickster, Netley Lucas reposed in the highest class. . . . Houlbrook
whose interest in his subject verges on the maniacal
stresses Lucas's protean qualities, the ceaseless urge to reinvent himself, the self-justifying tendencies that encouraged him to believe his own lies. This, as Houlbrook acknowledges, is classic conman psychology, but just as fascinating are the reactions of the people Lucas duped.
Times Houlbrook shows how Lucas navigated his way through the vastly expanded popular publishing world of interwar Britain, conceiving books and articles, commissioning writers, seeking approval and even some sort of cooperation from his subjects. . . . The material is fascinating.
Literary Review Deeply researched, theoretically sophisticated, and beautifully written.
American Literary History Tracking his suave trickster prince Netley Lucas through courtrooms and across continents, Houlbrook shows that the confidence man, every bit as much as the flapper, defined Britain in the aftermath of the Great War. Houlbrook dares you to trust the plausible past that he has meticulously assembled out of Lucas's many lives and lies. A virtuosic performance: tender, bracing, and brilliant.
Seth Koven, author of The Match Girl and the Heiress The man who has gotten under Houlbrook's skin is lucky to have won a biographer capable of making this petty crook worthy of the reader's time and attention. . . .However, that doesn't describe this book, which rewards close and thoughtful reading.
Journal of Modern History Houlbrook's adamant refusal to reduce to a single story the many incarnations of the confidence man Netley Lucas mobilizes historiographical debate as if by stealth. Questioning how and why we read and write history, this account of interwar Britain is like no other. At every turn Prince of Tricksters unravels the strands of one man's life to unsettle the very possibility of getting the story right. Lively and lucid, the book will appeal not only to scholars but also the general reader.
Laura Doan, author of Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality, and Women's Experience of Modern War In Prince of Tricksters, Houlbrook has uncovered the countless frauds perpetuated by one of Britain's most brazen con artists
a relentless huckster who fooled aristocrats, journalists, publishers, and just about everyone else he encountered. . . . Houlbrook offers some playful surprises, rendering one episode from Lucas' life into a snippet of screenplay and beginning the book with an affectionate 'letter of love to my impossible subject.' And there are intriguing explorations of the challenges historians face when untangling truth from fiction, especially when writing about someone who lied about so much for so long.
Scotsman Houlbrook has assembled all the pieces of the fascinating puzzle of Netley Lucas's life, but when they are fitted together, the picture that emerges is a perfect blank. However, it's a blank that never ceases to intrigue. . . . Prince of Tricksters is a remarkable work.
Bookforum Houlbrook's intimacy with the cultural landscape of his era is a real strength of the book. Allowing him to situate the content, genre, and dissemination of Lucas's faked stories within the canon of high-, middle-, and low-brow literature then circulating, Houlbrook knits these references carefully into the web of 'authenticity effects' on which Lucas drew in order to secure publication of his own 'fakes.' This is surely a definitive model for historians aiming to expose the broader resonance of their specific topic of research, vividly recalling Natalie Zemon Davis' The Return of Martin Guerre (1984). In sum, Prince of Tricksters is an evocative and fascinating book that is sure to become required reading for future generations of historians.
Journal of British Studies Prince of Tricksters is much more than the biography of an elusive individual: it is also a glimpse of a particular kind of interwar British masculinity, as well as a reflection on the process of writing history from partial or misleading records. . . . Grounded in hours in the archives, this book slips the boundaries of generic classification in ways that seem completely fitting, given the elusive nature of its subject.
Space Between Journal Show Less