Ted Lewis

Page Updated: 08/10/98

Ted Lewis

About the Author

Bibliography

The Rabbit

Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon

GBH

Jack Carter's Law

Plender

Get Carter

Billy Rags

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1998)

The Rabbit
Victor is an art student; his Dad manages a Lincolnshire stone quarry. In the holidays, Victor works there He wants to be one of the lads; Clacker, a tough Teddy boy, decides not. Victor is uncertain of his masculinity; Clacker is not. In a workplace riven with bullying, sexual bravado and assault, the two confront each other…
Set in the 1950s, The Rabbit is a subtle and powerful analysis of sexual self-doubt and jealousy, as well as a disturbing, truthful account of the dark side of adolescence.
Praise for Ted Lewis' work
'Tightly told and all too convincing…' Yorkshire Post

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1994)

Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon
Gerald and Les decide that Jack needs a holiday - at their villa in Majorca. Why? Jack's gangland bosses aren't normally so generous. 'A bit of time on your own, Jack. Peace and quiet.' Hardly. When D'Antoni turns up lack knows he's been suckered.
A mafioso on the run, a sassy piece called Tina, and Gerald's very attentive wife Audrey - all turn Jack's peace and quiet into a very messy time indeed ...
'Good value from Mr Lewis ... the guy can write'

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1993)

GBH
'When I turned round from the table Arthur's trousers and underpants were round his knees. Mickey took the glass from Arthur's hand and put it back on the card table and then he picked up the short strands of rope from next to the bucket and tied Arthur's ankles to the chair legs and his arms behind the chair back. After he'd done that Mickey moved the bucket a little closer to where Arthur was, causing a few drops of water to jump over the bucket's rim and slop down on to the bare floorboards. Then Mickey taped Arthur's mouth shut with some gauze and plaster.…
Mickey took his gloves from his pocket and put them on, then gathered the dangling wires to him, taking hold of them not quite at their naked ends. I was suddenly conscious of Jean's perfume as she moved very quietly to stand by my ride. Now the games were over'
In the twilight world of London's gangland, a porn king with a priceless and far-reaching empire is on the run from the mob in yet another stunning Ted Lewis thriller of violence, corruption and - grievous bodily harm....
'A cracking tale' Sunday express

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1993)

Jack Carter's Law
It is Christmas Eve, London, and all's quiet - save for the whispering of a grass. Now if there's one thing Jack Carter can't stand, it's a grass, especially as Jimmy Swann is about to put him and his mates down for a twenty-year stretch.
The answer's simple - shoot him before he shoots his mouth off. Simple maybe, but first you've got to find Jimmy, who isn't advertising his whereabouts.
Jack Carter is a hard man, and he doesn't give up easily; though even he was not prepared for the trail of murder and mayhem that dogged his search for the informer.
Ted Lewis's second Jack Carter thriller combines horrific realism with sardonic humour. Every page crackles with tension and excitement as he portrays the brutal half-world of pool-halls, massage parlours and teenage pornography. Nail-bitingly gripping.
'A fast-moving toughie' The Yorkshire Post

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1997)

Plender
'Peter ... lads like Brian will just hold you back. You've got to get on.' He did. So did Brian Plender. At school, Peter Knott was the top dog. Seventeen years on, Plender is. A woman dies in Knott's studio. Plender knows and uses that 'little secret'... Set against the 'sixties background of the industrial north, once again Ted Lewis has produced a masterpiece of excitement and tension.
'Fresh and original' The Times
'Traced with rare delicacy of feeling' Norman Shrapnel, The Guardian
'When it comes to dealing with your actual ... hard man, no one does it better than the late, great Ted Lewis' John Williams, Arena

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1998)

Get Carter
Sixties classic noir crime novel
Doncaster, and Jack Carter is home for a funeral - his brother Frank's. Frank had been found dead and drunk in his car at the bottom of a cliff. Now Frank was a mild, sober man, so why did he land up dead in his car at the bottom of a cliff! Jack thinks his death doesn't add up and decides to ask questions. But he is told to stop by Gerald and Les who run a porn 'firm' and Jack is their 'hit' man. Now Frank did as he was told, but Jack is not like that…
First published as Jack's Return Home, Ted Lewis's tough uncompromising novel of a brutal half-world of pool halls, massage parlours and teenage pornography was memorably recreated in the cult film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as Jack. The novel, unforgettable like the film, portrays a stark society of people living on the dangerous border-line between crime and respectability.
'The guy can write' The Scotsman

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1997)

Billy Rags
See Review by John Baker
Billy Cracken is in maximum security, serving a 25-year sentence. With seventeen years to run, without remission, and a wife and child waiting for him on the outside, there seems no alternative to going over the wall. But if Billy escapes it means Walter Colman doesn't. This self appointed 'baron' of the prison, still running his organisation from the inside, tries to stop Billy - and fails. Being on the outside Billy finds he has to evade two enemies - the police and Walter's private army bent on revenge...
'Lewis writes tensely and well' Sunday Times
'Ted Lewis is a name to watch' Sunday Express

About The Author
Ted Lewis was born in Manchester in 1940, an only child. After the Second World War the family moved to Barton-on-Humber. He had a strict upbringing and his parents did not want their son to go to art school, but Ted's English teacher, recognising his creative talents in writing and art, persuaded them not to stand in his way. Lewis attended Hull Art School for four years. His first work was in London, in advertising, and then as an animation specialist in television annd films (among them the Beatles' Yellow Submarine). His first novel, All the Way Home and All the Night Through was published in 1965, followed by Jack's Return Home, subsequently retitled Get Carter after the success of the film of the same name starring Michael Caine, which created the noir school of British crime writing and pushed Lewis into the best-seller list. Ted Lewis died prematurely in 1982 having published seven further noir novels and written several episodes for the television series Z Cars.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

The Rabbit (Allison & Busby, 1998) Allison & Busby Pbk May 98

Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon (Michael Joseph, 1997) Allison & Busby Pbk 94 (Jack Carter)

GBH (Sphere, 1980) Allison & Busby Pbk 93 (Jack Carter)

Jack Carter's Law (Michael Joseph, 1974) Allison & Busby Pbk 93 (Jack Carter)

Plender (Michael Joseph, 1971) Allison & Busby Pbk Nov 97

Get Carter (Michael Joseph, 1970) Originally published as Jack's Return Home Allison & Busby Pbk Mar 98 (Jack Carter)

All the Way Home and All the Night Through (1965)

Billy Rags (Allison & Busby) Allison & Busby Pbk May 97 (Billy Cracken)

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