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The Unusual Suspect

The Remarkable True Story of a Modern-Day Robin Hood

Ben Machell

$24.99

Paperback

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English
Canongate Books
12 April 2022
It is 2007, a time of recession and impending climate crisis, and one young man decides to change the world.

This is the story of Stephen Jackley, a British geography student with Asperger's Syndrome. Aged just twenty-one, obsessed with the idea of Robin Hood, and with no prior experience, he resolved to become a bank robber. He would steal from the rich and give to the poor.

And he did. Bank notes mysteriously found their way into the hands of the homeless. The police had no idea who was responsible. Until Jackley's ambition got the better of him.

By:  
Imprint:   Canongate Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   Main
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 19mm
Weight:   215g
ISBN:   9781786897992
ISBN 10:   1786897997
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Ben Machell is a feature writer for The Times and The Times Magazine and a contributor to publications including VICE, ES Magazine and Esquire. He has been shortlisted for Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards. Ben has full and exclusive access to Stephen and his surviving diaries, as well as access to law enforcement and the key characters involved in Jackley's story on both sides of the Atlantic. @ben_machell

Reviews for The Unusual Suspect: The Remarkable True Story of a Modern-Day Robin Hood

'Completely fascinating . . . reads like a deep psychological thriller, but it's real. Is truth stranger than fiction? You bet' - LEE CHILD 'One of the strengths of Ben Machell's compelling book is its patient unearthing of the various motivations for his subject's behaviour . . . This splendid book . . . does full justice to his complexity' - Guardian 'Stephen Jackley, the Robin Hood bank robber, is an Asperger's student with an incredible, increasingly dark story, which Machell tells with Hollywood box-office wit, compassion and brio. With every page, you find yourself screaming OH MY GOD - WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STEPHEN? , all the way up to him ending in US jail. How one young man's misguided plan to save the world went increasingly, dangerously wrong' - CAITLIN MORAN 'Truly affecting true crime. I've heard it said that a villain is just a victim whose story hasn't been told - this big-hearted, fascinating, meticulous book made me feel that way about Stephen Jackley' - MARINA HYDE 'Fascinating . . . In Machell, [Jackley] has found the most sympathetic and intelligent of biographers . . . The Unusual Suspect raises important questions about our ideas of guilt, idealism and the nature of responsibility . . . a tremendously invigorating book, scrupulously researched, sympathetically told, a picaresque tale of modern life, by turns funny and sad' - Mail on Sunday


  • Long-listed for CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2022 (UK)
  • Short-listed for CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2022 (UK)

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