Welcome to our virtual bookshelf!
In recent years there has been a marked uptick in the number of books published about or featuring the British Transport Police, mainly by retired officers and – I’m pleased to report – by BTPHG members.
In order to keep track, a webpage seemed to be called for to chronicle this new phenomenon. Not to forget the older volumes either, of course!
If there are any we’ve missed, or you want to tell us about any forthcoming works, let us know via the Contact page, using BookShelf as the subject title.
The Railway Policeman – by J.R. Whitbread (1961)*
A Force on the Move – by Pauline Appleby (1995)*
Railway Copper – by Bill Perkins (2000)*
An Incident Occurred by Geoffrey Lawrence (2003)*
Hunting the Hooligans – by Mike Layton and Robert Endeacott (2015) (Not strictly a book about the BTP but has plenty of interesting anecdotes by BTP Officers)
British Transport Police – An Illustrated History – by Richard Stacpoole-Ryding (2015)
Tracking the Hooligans – by Mike Layton and Alan Pacey (2016) – The history of football violence on the rail network.
An Inspector Recalls: Memoirs of a Railway Detective – Graham Satchwell (2016)
Police Dog Heroes – by Mike Layton and Bill Rogerson – A history of the BTP Dog Section (2016)
The Railway Policeman’s Casebook by Richard Stacpoole-Ryding (2016)
Nineteenth Century Railway Crime and Policing by Malcolm Clegg (2017)
Policing the West Country: 180 Years of Policing in Devon and Cornwall by Mark Rothwell (2017) – Contains a chapter on the railway police in the region.
The Hooligans Are Still Among Us by Michael Layton and Bill Rogerson (2017) – A sequel to Tracking the Hooligans, it tells the story of hooliganism on and off the railways and features plenty of stories by BTP Officers.
Policing South Wales Docks – an Illustrated History by Viv Head (2018)
The Great Train Robbery – Confidential by Graham Satchwell (2019)
Operation Cabinet – The Inside Story by Paul Kenyon (2020) – (see blog entry)
Old Bill’s Tales of the Railway Old Bill – Forty Nine Years of Working for the British Transport Police by Bill Rogerson M.B.E. (2021) – (see blog entry)
Rot at the Core: The Serious Crimes of a Detective Sergeant by Graham Satchwell and Winston Trew (2021)
British Transport Police – A definitive history of the early years and subsequent development by Malcolm Clegg (2022) – (see blog entry)
Railway Crimes Committed in Victorian Britain by Malcolm Clegg (2023) – (see blog entry)
(*) indicates the book is out of print.
Unless asterisked, all books are available from good booksellers and internet sites.
Many titles are now available in Amazon Kindle format and possibly in other eBook formats (check with the publisher).