Author Description

Clarence Rook (1863-1915) was a British journalist, novelist, and writer of short, witty sketches of Edwardian London and its inhabitants. He was most admired for his novel of working-class life The Hooligan Nights (1899). From 1896 to 1908 he practiced the craft of casual journalism. "This is neither a novel, nor in any sense a work of imagination. Whatever value or interest the following chapters possess must come from the fact that their hero has a real existence. I have tried to set forth, as far as possible in his own words, certain scenes from the life of a young criminal with whom I chanced to make acquaintance, a boy who has grown up in the midst of those who gain their living on the crooked, who takes life and its belongings as he finds them, and is not in the least ashamed of himself. "