The year is 1933 and William Woodruff, sixteen years old and passionately idealistic, is leaving the Lancashire of his childhood so vividly portrayed in The Road to Nab End and now in the depths of economic depression. He is going to London, hoping to get a job in a foundry, determined to make his way in the world.

Set down in the East End of London, William discovers no streets paved with gold, but filthy tenements and the seedy glamour of the Sunday picture house - the squalor that only a great city can conceal. He finds himself a beer-swilling landlady with a predatory daughter and a tattooed madman of a son with whom he has to share his bed, sleeping head to toe. Then, at night school, William discovers his love of learning and decides to get an education. And as Mosley's blackshirts provoke street fighting, he witnesses the stoicism and courage of ordinary people in the face of impending ware: a war in which he himself will soon be fighting...

'A terrific story with an archetypal rags-to-riches dimension. It is nostalgic, vivid and charming' - Observer

This book is in a nice 2nd hand condition - not perfect

Happy to combine postage. Please note extra will be charged for rural delivery.

Pickup is from Crofton Downs.