{"product_id":"kings-cross-kid-9781408840511","title":"Kings Cross Kid","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVictor Gregg, born in 1919, has had a rich and fascinating life. \u003ci\u003eKing''s Cross Kid \u003c\/i\u003efollows his London childhood from the age of five, when life was so hard  that the Salvation Army arranged for young Vic to be taken to the  Shaftesbury Home for Destitute Children. Home again a year later, the  scallywag years of late childhood began. Then, after the years of street gangs and run-ins with the law, Vic leaves school at fourteen and  his real adventures start, and with them a working-class apprenticeship  in survival. Ending with his enlistment in the army on the day of his  eighteenth birthday, this prequel to the bestselling \u003ci\u003eRifleman\u003c\/i\u003e will appeal to the many  readers who were charmed by Victor Gregg''s engaging, honest and warm  voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvocative, detailed and unsentimental – gets us wonderfully close-up to the London of the 1930s viewed through the unblinking eyes of a working-class boy relishing every new experience * \u003cb\u003eDavid Kynaston, author of \u003ci\u003eAusterity Britain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eAn urchin’s story that does for London what \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Nab End\u003c\/i\u003e did for Lancashire ... a vivid recreation of a street life of poverty and insecurity richly infused with great warmth, mischief and humour * \u003cb\u003eJuliet Gardiner, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Thirties: An Intimate History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eVic’s honesty and warmth shine through this engaging story\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e * \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eChoice Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eIntensely moving **** * \u003cb\u003eJuliet Gardner, \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eA gripping life-story: an incident-packed account of heartache, violence and cunning by a man whose will to survive and unbreakable optimism are a true inspiration * \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eRifleman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eCompletely fascinating ... It has an immediate power throughout that makes war fiction a pale shadow of the real thing * \u003cb\u003eConn Iggulden\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eSecond World War memoirs are commonplace, but very few soldiers had Victor Gregg's breadth and depth of experience ... \u003ci\u003eRifleman \u003c\/i\u003eis an outstanding book that deserves to become a classic * \u003cb\u003eLloyd Clark, author of \u003ci\u003eArnhem\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eAs action-packed as any fiction, and yet this is no novel ... His is truly an astonishing story * \u003cb\u003eJames Holland, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Battle of Britain\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFortress Malta\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eQuite simply, it is one of the best first-hand accounts by a combat infantryman that I have read ... This gripping book immediately joins a select band of the best soldiers' stories told from the sharp end. It is a classic ***** * \u003cb\u003eGary Sheffield, \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eHis coldly factual account of the torments of its burned-to-death victims exceeds in power even Kurt Vonnegut's famous fictional account, \u003ci\u003eSlaughterhouse Five \u003c\/i\u003e... Warrior Gregg has seen and experienced the stuff of nightmares, but remains a chirpy optimist in his 90s * \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaily Mirror\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e *","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51019807261015,"sku":"9781408840511","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781408840511.jpg?v=1750781320","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/kings-cross-kid-9781408840511","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}