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  • Published: 4 October 2012
  • ISBN: 9781448130078
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

The Streets




A tale of love and conspiracy in Dickens' London. From the author of Half of the Human Race.(Channel 4 TV Book Club).

From the author of Half of the Human Race (Channel 4 TV Book Club) comes an intricate and thrilling tale of love and conspiracy in Victorian London.

London, 1882. David Wildeblood, an idealistic young journalist, pounds the streets of Camden reporting on the notorious slums. The misery and squalor surprise him, but more shocking still is the realisation that someone is profiting from this destitution. Wildeblood’s urge to uncover the truth draws him into mortal danger as his investigations reveal a trail of corruption that leads to the very highest levels of society...

‘Powerful and heartfelt. Ms Eliot and Mr Dickens would surely approve’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Quinn blends his history, his political concerns, his ideals, his plot and his characters elegantly, with a light hand and the pace of a thriller’ Daily Telegraph

  • Published: 4 October 2012
  • ISBN: 9781448130078
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

About the author

Anthony Quinn

Anthony Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1964. From 1998 to 2013 he was the film critic for the Independent. He is the author of six novels: The Rescue Man, which won the 2009 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award; Half of the Human Race; The Streets, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Walter Scott Prize; Curtain Call, which was chosen for Waterstones and Mail on Sunday book clubs; Freya, a Radio 2 Book Club choice, and Eureka.

Also by Anthony Quinn

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Praise for The Streets

Ambitious, gripping and disturbingly well done.

Kate Saunders, The Times

Quinn’s most mature novel yet… His picture of poverty’s shaming, dehumanizing effect is powerful, and the recurrent call for pity heartfelt. Ms Eliot and Mr Dickens would surely approve.

Holly Kyte, Sunday Telegraph

Cements his reputation as an accomplished and challenging novelist… Though it takes place 130 years ago, the questions that The Streets poses about how, as a society and individuals, we tackle deprivation arguably remain just as pertinent.

Peter Stanford, Independent

Quinn blends his history, his political concerns, his ideals, his plot and his characters elegantly, with a light hand and the pace of a thriller.

Louisa Young, Daily Telegraph

Displays the unsentimental yet powerful flair for romance that characterized his previous novel, Half of the Human Race. Perhaps most exciting of all, there is a sense that he is still writing within himself.

Tom Cox, Sunday Times

Magnificent, bringing the Dickensian streets to grubby, teeming life.

Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

Anthony Quinn is a terrific storyteller. He has a thrilling knack for turning familiar periods of history into something surprising and often shocking, and for making the fortunes and misfortunes of his characters matter.

Juliet Nicholson, Evening Standard

Quinn brings the period in question vividly to life: his research is exemplary, and his subject absorbing.

Lucy Scholes, Observer

Anthony Quinn’s novels just get better... Parallels with contemporary London lurk just below the surface. This is not only an exciting thriller and a touching, stop-start love story but a seriously important book.

Sue Gaisford, Tablet

All the ingredients of an upmarket page-turner.

Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday

A story that brings alive an area of Camden that saw massive social change in a short space of time: the explosion of the railways and the shoe-horning of thousands of semi-starved people into slums provide a backdrop.

Dan Carrier, Camden New Journal

A devastating tale of subterfuge, poverty and privilege set in the cobbled streets of Victorian London.

Daily Record

Magnificent, bringing the Dickensian streets to grubby, teeming life

Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

Cements his reputation as an accomplished and challenging novelist… Though it takes place 130 years ago, the questions that The Streets poses about how, as a society and individuals, we tackle deprivation arguably remain just as pertinent

Peter Stanford, Independent

Quinn blends his history, his political concerns, his ideals, his plot and his characters elegantly, with a light hand and the pace of a thriller

Louisa Young, Daily Telegraph

Quinn’s most mature novel yet… His picture of poverty’s shaming, dehumanizing effect is powerful, and the recurrent call for pity heartfelt. Ms Eliot and Mr Dickens would surely approve

Holly Kyte, Sunday Telegraph

Anthony Quinn is a terrific storyteller. He has a thrilling knack for turning familiar periods of history into something surprising and often shocking, and for making the fortunes and misfortunes of his characters matter

Juliet Nicholson, Evening Standard

Displays the unsentimental yet powerful flair for romance that characterized his previous novel, Half of the Human Race. Perhaps most exciting of all, there is a sense that he is still writing within himself

Tom Cox, Sunday Times

Quinn brings the period in question vividly to life: his research is exemplary, and his subject absorbing

Lucy Scholes, Observer

All the ingredients of an upmarket page-turner

Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday

Ambitious, gripping and disturbingly well done

Kate Saunders, The Times

Beyond its splendid feel for the era’s chat and patter, the novel pits philanthropy and opportunism, ideals and selfishness, bracingly at odds

Boyd Tonkin, Independent

This novel is refreshingly different and contains a cornucopia of wonderful material and evocative descriptions

Good Book Guide

The best book I’ve read in ages… You have to read it.

Hilary Rose, The Times