Three Brothers follows the fortunes of Harry, Daniel and Sam Hanway, born on a p
ost-war council estate in Camden Town. Marked out from the start by curious coin
cidence, each boy is forced to make his own way in the world - a world of dodgy
deals and big business, of criminal gangs and crooked landlords, of newspaper ma
gnates, back-biters and petty thieves. London is the backdrop and the connecting
fabric of these three lives, reinforcing Ackroyd's grand theme that place and h
istory create, surround and engulf us.
From bustling, cut-throat Fleet Street
to hallowed London publishing houses, from the wealth and corruption of Chelsea
to the smoky shadows of Limehouse and Hackney, this is an exploration of the ci
ty, peering down its streets, riding on its underground, and drinking in its pub
s and clubs. Everything is possible - not only in the new freedom of the 1960s b
ut also in London's timeless past.
