Alexander Baron – författare

One Londoner gambles on his own life in this lost classic by 'one of the great English Jewish novelists' (Times), introduced by Iain Sinclair.'Terrific. Propulsive, funny and touching.' Sebastian Faulks'A fascinating snapshot of a lost London world, by a remarkable neglected writer.' Sarah WatersA wonderfully enduring novel . . . A great rediscovery.' William Boyd'Perfect . . . Captures London in all its grime and glory.' Benjamin MyersNever give up hope before the dogs have crossed the finishing-line.Harryboy Boas is a lowlife gambler. When he's not at the track, he lives in a Hackney boarding house, reading Zola, eating salt beef, pressing trousers and repressing wartime memories. But when a new family moves into the apartment downstairs, his life starts to unravel and Harryboy soon finds himself sinking into a murky East End underworld where violence, guilt and gangsters are the inevitable result for those who cannot pay their dues.A celebrated cult classic, The Lowlife brilliantly evokes post-war East London - dog tracks, sandwich shops, tenements, sex workers, newly arrived West Indians and Jews leaving for Finchley - all seen through the tragicomic eyes of Harryboy, our picaresque rogue hero suffering from 'existential burn-out in the shadow of the Holocaust' (Iain Sinclair) and driven to bet, brag and beg to survive.'The greatest British novelist of the last war and among the finest, most underrated, of the postwar period.' Guardian

January 1944, the south coast of England. The Fifth Battalion, Wessex Regiment wait patiently and nervously for the order to embark. There is boredom and fear, comedy and pathos as the men - all drawn from different walks of life - await the order to move. From The City, From The Plough is a vivid and moving account of the fate of these men as they set off for Normandy and advance into France.

In August 1943, Sergeant Craddock leads his battle-weary platoon down Via Garibaldi in Catania, Sicily. Struck by the oppressive heat and the alien new surroundings, the men soon settle into this lull in their combat experience. The next few weeks take on a dreamlike quality as newfound relationships flourish and the war itself - let alone homelife in Britain - recedes into the distance. Against this backdrop, the second book of Alexander Baron's War Trilogy meditates upon friendship, loyalty and love.Based on Baron's own experiences with the Eighth Army in Italy, this new edition of a 1950 classic includes an introduction from IWM which puts the novel in historical context and shines a light on this unique experience of the Second World War.