Assembling a gang of 13 strangers with the sole aim of emptying the bank of a major casino sounds like the plot of a 60s Rat Pack movie, but Norman Leigh and his associates in Thirteen Against the Bank did just that in 1966. What's more, they made their fortunes perfectly legitimately - on the roulette table.

Leigh's account of how his team - an unlikely collection of office clerks, book-keepers, pub landlords and an old dear straight out of an Ealing comedy - broke the bank at the Casino Municipale in Nice is told in such colourful detail that since it was first published in 1975, many readers have mistaken this true story for a work of fiction.