RIP Bruce Reynolds

The West End has another ghost wandering it’s streets tonight.  A bon viveur, that lived his life to the max, formerly an antique-dealer, who bought his suits in Savile Row, carried the nickname ‘Napoleon’, drove an Aston Martin, enjoyed holidays in the south of France, attended parties of the rich and famous, made speeches at Eton College, had Michael Caine base a character on him, and what else did he do…?  Oh yes…he planned, schemed, and carried out, with true stealth and finesse, not a gun in sight, the greatest crime of the twentieth century…The Great Train Robbery.

Being the son of a solicitor, I grew up reading true crime books from my dad’s shelves, and I can tell you; not many come better than Bruce Reynolds’ autobiography: ‘The Autobiography of a Thief’.  It isn’t a load of self-serving and made up rubbish, like so many other similar books, but a cuttingly honest and frank look at his life, and the terrible effects and stigma, The Great Train Robbery would never leave him of.  He said that he was no hero, nothing to be looked up to, and he spent his latter years living off hand-outs from other crooks, for turning up as a ‘celebrity’ at their social functions.  BR had a mind that, if educated, could have achieved almost anything in many other, rather more productive fields.  He was cultured, and considered by all, to be the perfect old school gent. However, after serving a grossly unfair twenty five years, he found it impossible to find gainful and legitimate employment.  I think he was one of those people that lived many different lives in his one life.

Blog, do you think that Bruce Reynolds should be posthumously NS’d?  I think so.  Bruce Reynolds = Not Staff.

RIP Brucey.  I would say that you’ve gone to the ‘pub and betting shop in the sky’ (as Lofty always puts death, so sweetly), but I think you’d rather go to the ‘pub and high street bank in the sky’.  Don’t worry, in heaven the pints are free and the cashier in the bank always leaves the keys to the safe under the door-mat.

B x