The first half of this compelling but disconcerting book tells the totally unedifying story of a botched jewel robbery at the Hyde Park Hotel in London in December 1937. Four upper middle-class “playboys” short of the cash necessary to sustain their high style of living invited Cartier’s London manager to come to a hotel room with jewelry for sale, violently attacked him, and absconded with the jewels. They were easily caught. Their trial at the Old Bailey was of both national and international interest—a crowded social event attended by the likes of the Duke of Rutland and Margot Asquith. McLaren provides a detailed account of the previous and subsequent lives of the four defendants, all well born and well educated at reputable public schools (Radley, Harrow, Wellington, and Oundle).
The defendants went to jail. The flogging with cat o’ nine tails that two of them endured caused a debate about...