About Brian
Brian's Story
Brian McDonald is a South London historian. His field of interest is the social history of the colourful characters who lived on the edge of the law and some that went far beyond it.
Brian grew up at Elephant and Castle, where he was associated with local gangs and went around with the same group that included Eddie Richardson. His uncles had been leading lights around the Elephant and in Soho, just across the River Thames, between the two World Wars. When a young man, Brian’s Aunt Ada filled his head with tales of family exploits, which gave him an interest to find out more. He set about researching the history of Ada’s tales.
He delved into old newspapers, out of print books and police records, visited the British Library, National Records at Kew, sites in London that held special interest and travelled as far as Birmingham to research old time villain Billy Kimber, who had associated himself with Wag McDonald’s Elephant gang.
An attache case full of letters, postcards and photos left by his uncle Charles ‘Wag’ McDonald with his sister Ada came into Brian’s possession. Amongst the cache of photographs were members of the all-female Forty Elephants gang that lived in the streets circled about the Elephant.
Brian’s first book, Elephant Boys - Tales of London and Los Angeles Underworlds, told about growing up in Kennington and Borough in the years immediately following World War 2. It followed the exploits of his uncles Wag and Bert McDonald in Los Angeles and in the racecourse wars in England, where they traded blows with the Sabini gang from Clerkenwell, and the Bethnal Green gang led by Dodger Mullins. This caught newspaper headlines from 1919 to the onset of World War 2.
Long before the Krays and the Richardsons, London was plagued by gang warfare.
Brian’s second book, Gangs of London, commissioned by Milo Books for a series on British city gangs, is widely regarded as the best source on the Sabini gang, Camden Town gang, Elephant gang and East End gangs. It had wide media coverage and sparked programmes like Peaky Blinders.
Brian’s next book, Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants, brought more sensational newspaper and television comment. The story of an all-female gang of organised shoplifters between the wars, was an almost untold story. It has now been used by fiction writers and influenced such television programmes as A Thousand Blows.
Although Brian was associated with many gang-related incidents in his youth, he resisted the call of the underworld and made a career in the printing industry, rising to Production Manager of Kentish Times series of newspapers. He then became a College Lecturer in Business before retiring with his wife Gillian.
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Brian is represented by Milo Books. Please direct all rights or media enquiries to them.