1922. Twenty-four-year-old Eleanor Mackridge is horrified by the future mapped out for her to serve the upper classes or find a husband.

During the war, she found freedom in joining the workforce at home, but now women are being put back in their place.

Until Eleanor crosses paths with a member of the notorious female-led gang the Forty Elephants: bold women who wear diamonds and fur, drink champagne and gin, who take what they want without asking. Now, she sees a new future for herself: she can serve, marry or steal. After all, men will only let you down.

Diamonds are forever. In Poor Girls, Clare Whitfield exposes the criminal underbelly of 1920s London but this isn’t a morality tale, it’s an adventure for the willingly wicked.