“... of high school, she was troubled by his apparent aimlessness. When she derided him as a good-time Charlie, the boy shot back: ‘Well, why not? Maybe that’s what I want out of life. I mean, look at Gramps [her father] … is that what you’re worried about? That I’ll end up like Gramps?’ The boy had become impatient, irritated by the sense that he was ...”

“... the pathways were glittering as I made my way down to the church. I hadn’t taken in before that Charlie Richardson, leader of the Richardson Gang, was buried here, as well as George Cornell, the gangster shot by the Kray Twins in The Blind Beggar pub. But it was the graves and sentry toys of the unknown children that had lodged in my mind. The trees were ...”

“... skew so that she looked like a drunken signalman or a French guardsman of the 1880s; there was her Charlie Brown pitcher’s hat; and in June 1977 an octagonal straw table mat, tied on with a chiffon scarf and a bit of cardboard for the peak. She also went in for green eyeshades. Her skirts had a telescopic appearance as they had often been lengthened many ...”