Customer Reviews
The mechanics of execution - By: Random Reader, 23 Sep 2008 
I read this book after seeing the film starring Timothy Spall. My motive was to understand how someone lives with the fact that they regularly take the life of other people, albeit legally. This autobiography provides some insight into the reasons why Albert Pierrepoint took up his trade, but not so much about the effects on his mind.
He begins with an account of his early life, the realisation that both his father & his Uncle Tom were executioners, his father's proud statement that one day his son would be the Official Executioner. His closeness to his Uncle Tom, after the premature death of his father, leads him further towards him fulfilling his ambition. The book is a fascinating insight into life only a generation ago. As an historical account it is quite gripping & well worth reading.
This is a man who takes pridein his role & his professionalism. The book is long on detail about the mechanics of death by hanging, which isin itself well-written, but deals much less with the rights & wrongs or the impact of that process on individuals or society. For example, he makes absolutely no comment on the fact that he hanged men later proven innocent. There is however precious little detail about the way people act when facing execution. You won't find tortured soul-searching here from executioner or executed. Rather the executioner sees his role beginning & ending with the delivery of the justice of the land,in as quick & dignified way as possible. Throughout he emphasises his respect for the victim (his words) & his feeling of responsibility to make the last moments of life ones of dignity & respect. But the irony of hanging German men & women for war crimes, whose defence was that they were simply obeying orders, is never acknowledged. In the end he turns against capital punishment only because it is an ineffective deterrent. Maybein the end the ability not to pose the deeper questions are what enabled him to do the job he did.
More history than horror - By: Mr. R. Ellor, 21 Jan 2008 I must have bought four copies of this as it gets borrowed & never comes back!
Albert Pierrepoint was the lastin a dynasty of executioners. As such he wrote a book that is a record of his early life & immediate family history that is couchedin the language of the working class man who considers himself the upholder of dignity & standards. This comes across stronglyin his references to his work. Albert was very much a man of his time & considered executioner to be a post which carried a great deal of both importance & the need to be dignified at all times.
He pointedly refused to be swept upin the rights or wrongs of any case that ended up before him. To him a condemned prisoner was to suffer death & pay for their crime, & after the act would have wiped their slate with society. As such he would always act completely dispassionately & insist that the executed man or woman be treated with respect.
This straightforward & fastidious man writesin just that style. Expect no horror, Albert tells his storyin those dignified & restrained tones that set him as a 1930s man with an extraordinary sidelinein life.
Absolutely Fascinating - By: Richard Allen, 17 Nov 2007 
I'm too young to remember when the death sentence was legalin the UK, but was intrigued how a civilised society could condone such a extreme penalty. Although this book focuses primarily on the process & the author's partin it, it also provides some insight into the acceptance of the death penalty & its eventual abolition due to public pressure. Pierrepoint is a skilled recorder of his time & you are left with a strong sense of the humanity he brought to his role. The book is neither salacious or ghoulish. Whilst the author preserves the dignity of those he executed & provides only a little information of how the prisoners met their fate, you are nonetheless provided with a fascinating insight into a world that we can fortunately only imagine today.
Learning about our unmentioned history - By: Dream Reader, 01 Apr 2007 This book has given me much food for thought about this part of englands history a part of which is not taughtin schools. After reading this I have felt more understanding relating different events which flowed through the life of Albert Pierrepoint & more understanding on how people thought about crime form the forties through to the late fifties & how opinion changes.
I would reccomend this book to everyone!!
Pierrepoint the true story and his true feelings - By: C. Francis, 11 Feb 2007 Now we all have a side that is inquisitive & I have a mind that is intrigued by true crime. Whilst fiction has its place surely truth is far stranger than fiction. I have been interestedin the Hangmans craft from the victorian James Berry to the Pierrepoint family. This is a fine insight into the behind the scenes of the hangmans craft.
The book shows that Pierrepoint not only beleived that he was doing a job that no one else wanted but a vocation that ranin his family. He was good at it & history prooved that he was. He was not happy with talking about his craft to anyone not even his wife or close friends. This give an insight into what he felt when carrying out his job & what others felt of him. He learned from his fathers memoirs & his partnership with his Uncle Tom who he assistedin many an execution.
If there is one book on true crime & the hangmans craft that I would advise people to read it would be this one. It changed my view on capital punishment & will at least give us another side of the coin.
