Originally published 1958 | ||
Adaptations The League of Gentlemen (1959) Similar Urban Water Demand, Missing Actions, Project Windward: The Ques, Amber Road, The Color of Fraud | ||
The League of Gentlemen (1958) is a pulp-fiction novel by English author John Boland. The novel was made into the film The League of Gentlemen, which was released in 1960 and became the year's most successful British film.
Plot summary
Lt. Col. Hyde is forced into early retirement after 25 years of service as an officer in the British Army. To get his revenge Hyde recruits seven other officers for a special project. The officers are all equally dissatisfied and have skeletons in their closets. The job they are hired to do turns out to be a bank robbery. The seven former officers are all in bad standing with the army, and were all forced out of army for quite serious indiscretions. Hyde hires them for their respective specialities qualities that Hyde needs to succeed with the robbery. Before robbing the bank itself however, they stage a number of raids to get the weapons and trucks they need and all go off without a hitch. Hyde uses all his skills as a tactical military strategist and discipline to go ahead with the plan. The robbery is planned with military precision and everything really seems to go as planned - except for one simple error that gives them all away.