The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones tells the life-story of Ray ‘The Cat’ Jones, who nearly became middleweight boxing champion of the world but instead went on to become the greatest cat burglar of all time and made one of the most notorious prison escapes in British history. Ray is a tee-total, fitness obsessed, working-class Welshman whose boxing ambitions were thwarted when he was set up by a corrupt cop and sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, setting him on a path of revenge and a crusade against the inequalities and injustices of capitalist society. Ray is a modern Robin Hood waging an ideological class war against the rich. From the jewels of movie stars Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, to the private papers of the Duke of Windsor, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and the furs of the London aristocracy, Ray’s carefully targeted burglaries are perfectly planned and thrillingly executed. Part biography, part true crime story, part political manifesto, the novel combines Home’s typically sharp social and political comment with a fascinating, highly personal story of a life of crime and punishment. Ray was, it emerges, the cousin of Home’s mother.
