'The Jago had got him, and it held him fast.' In the worst of London's East End
slums, in an area called the Jago, young Dicky Perrott is used to a life of pove
rty, crime, and violence. Gang warfare is the order of the day, deaths are commo
nplace, and thieving the only way to survive. At first Dicky dreams of becoming
a High Mobsman - one of the aristocrats of Jago crime - but the efforts of Fathe
r Sturt to improve conditions offer him a different path.
Dicky's journey tak
es him through a savage but colourful community of pickpockets and cosh-carriers
, where the police only enter in threes, and where murder erupts with an unusual
horror and intimacy. Morrison's portrayal of the Victorian underclass and its u
nderworld drew attention to the bleak prospects for children living in such surr
oundings, and it is a classic of slum-fiction. In this edition Peter Miles provi
des a rich contextual background to the creation of the novel, and the social de
bates to which it contributed.
