A Devilish Kind of Courage : Anarchists, Aliens and the Siege of Sidney Street

On 3 January 1911, in the heart of London's mainly Jewish East End, police discovered Latvian revolutionaries wanted for the murder of three officers. A six-hour gunfight ensued, with a fire consuming the besieged building. Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, arrived at the scene and ordered the blaze not to be extinguished. Afterwards two charred bodies were found; the elusive Peter the Painter, believed to have been the ringleader, remained at large. This gripping episode, known as the `Siege of Sidney Street', was a nationwide sensation and ignited fierce debates on immigration to Britain, political extremism and law enforcement. This book unravels the full story of the siege, the Latvian �migr�s and their ties to the vibrant anarchist movement in London's East End.