Le Roman D'Un Royaliste Sous La Revolution (1895)

The genesis of London’s East End, was to provide labour to first build, and then operate the docks, factories, warehouses and all the allied trades connected to them. Occasionally, amidst the deprivation and hardship, one person will stand out, not in a nasty way, more as exhibiting a superior survival skill, such a person is George Mathias.  George is an East End urchin, crafty, streetwise, educated enough to get by, and like all his classmates destined to lead a traditional life of hard labour, and providing the Cannon Fodder for the Second World War.  Unlike (most of) his classmates he is a result of the revelry that followed the end of the First World War, and was bypassed by traditional family love and affection.  But George is a bit sharper than most, he’s had to be to even reach the Second World War.  It changes him, profoundly, affected by personal loss his passions go deep:   so deep there is a barrier that even he cannot recognise or define, and is barely aware of.  He returns to his previous life an embittered but Decorated man.  To survive he does things that, whilst he is not exactly ashamed of them, he wouldn’t really want his friends to know about.  Single-mindedness enabled his talents to be recognised before, during, and after the war. He has a token of luck, which he exploits to the full.  Then, one person manages to change him, or more accurately, rescue him, to eventually lead a normal life.