Roy,
As you say Carl Chinn comes from a family of bookmaker, his family and my wife's family are related through marriage, not that he would know her if he walked past her in the street. He is a closer relative to my best mate. I went to Carl Chinns wedding with my mate in the early seventies. Well it was either him or his brother. I'm not sure which.
I remember the family when they had bookie shops, and as you say before it was legal and you used to hand your bets to a runner.
Carl's quite a celebrity now in Birmingham, not that I am a fan. He gets far too many thing wrong in his books for my liking. Thats the trouble when you achieve a bit of fame you start leaving menial things like research to assistants, and they couldn't care less.
Phil.