Lawless and The Devil of Euston Square (46 page)

I recall Worm’s image of the spark that would set off revolutions. I picture Skelton bestriding the continent, reaching down to light the tinder across Europe, to burn away the dead wood and keep warm the hopes of the poor, downtrodden and despised. I suppose I hold him a symbol of the ever-elusive future. A man much greater than myself.

Could it have worked? I mean if he had stuck to changing the world instead of doing the rights, as Worm put it. Were people all like him, I think it might have. But sadly, people are more like me, plagued with equivocation and uncertainty, not to mention greed and carelessness. Wardle, whom I trusted, even loved, was corrupt as any criminal, while Skelton was vilified as a demon. What does it mean to be a watchman if we are the ones that need to be watched? The years pass so quickly now and all these disappointments merge together: that I never squared things with my father; that I never properly met Berwick. What it would have been to spend some time in that bright company! The one act of Berwick’s that seemed inexplicably barbarous took on a different hue in the light of the revelations that followed. Perhaps evil is not something you are but something you do. In my latter years, I am inclined to pity every poor soul as a fellow sufferer in life’s trials.

Sometimes a person gets desperate. He gets desperate and he does something that in the normal run of events he would never countenance. Something happens, trivial or world-shaking, and for the rest of his life he can never escape the consequences. Berwick fell for Nellie, and she left him. He was a man with dreams that could have shaken the earth, but those dreams turned to dust. Crushed by carelessness and ill fortune, he set out to create a mythological terror. Condemn him if you wish. I believe I understand him, or at least forgive him. A part of me even wishes he had succeeded. So it is that, sitting here with my good and gentle wife in our Edinburgh home, committing these incoherent fragments to paper, I end with weeping. I miss Berwick Skelton, for all his sins, and I curse the world that drove him to despair. It is poorer without him.

AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER

Although it would be foolish to dissemble that some figures are not intended to bear resemblance to historical figures, the main characters are my invention, and their nonsenses mine. Where I have used real people and events, I have been slovenly in my researches and feel confident that this is reflected in the incongruous intractabilities of the text. I have allowed myself to stretch credulity so far you may find it all just stupid fibs.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Caroline; to Emlyn and to Phil; to Mum and Dad; to Seán, Tom, Caroline and Vikki of the erstwhile Mercat Press; to John, Doris and Nina; to Jason, Noel, Hugh, Mirko, Suzie, Peter, Alice-Rose, Francesca, Shannon, Ruth, Jeremy, Charlie; to Dallas and Victoria, Robin, Shomit and Melissa; to Susan, Pedro, John Milton (in São Paulo); to Kenny Wright, Harry and Frank, Peter and Laura, Jane, Jill and Roger; to Lenny, Mike Greaney, Adrian Odell, Geoff, Lester, Ludo, Jasmine, Tata, TubePrune and
victorianlondon.org
; to Philip Jeays, Ken Campbell, Philippe Gaulier, Tim Crook and IRDP; to Peter Burnett, Sam Boyce, Thirsty Lunch; to Kay Hadwick, New Writing South, the Portsmouth Writers’ Hub, and the ReAuthoring Project.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Sutton comes from Dunblane, Scotland. He has written for the
Times
and the
Fortean Times
, acted in the longest play in the world, and played cricket for Brazil. This story of a gleaming metropolis mired in corruption came to him while living in São Paulo.

He writes for international magazines about language, music and futurology. His plays have been produced on radio and in London fringe theatres. He has performed at events from the Edinburgh Festival to High Down Prison, often wielding a ukulele. He teaches Latin and plays accordion with chansonnier Philip Jeays.

William-sutton.co.uk

twitter.com/WilliamGeorgeQ

EXHIBIT A

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A is for Anarchy!

Copyright © William Sutton 2006, 2013

First published in 2006 by Crescent Books, an imprint of Mercat Press, under the title The Worms of Euston Square

Published by Exhibit A 2013

Cover design by Argh! Oxford

All rights reserved.

Angry Robot is a registered trademark, and Exhibit A, the Exhibit A icon and

the Angry Robot icon a trademark of Angry Robot Ltd.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and

incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or

localities is entirely coincidental.

Ebook: ISBN: 978 1 90922 326 4

UK Paperback: ISBN: 978 1 90922 324 0

US Trade Paperback: ISBN 978 1 90922 325 7

Contents

1. Lawless & The Devil of Euston Square
   
2. Map
   
3. The First Period (1859)
   
4. The Second Period (1860)
   
5. The Third Period (Early 1861)
   
6. The Fourth Period (Mid to Late 1861)
   
7. The Fifth Period (Early 1862)
   
8. The Sixth Period (Mid 1862)
   
9. Afterword (1863, 1911, 1888)
   
10. Author's Disclaimer
    
11. Acknowledgments
    
12. About the Author
    
13. Imprint