Cactus Flowers

In the grim streets of London’s East End during the 1950s, Peter Kemp strives desperately to rescue young lads from a life of crime and destitution. One of a new breed of child care officers, he takes physical and professional risks on behalf of his young charges, tussling with difficult families and departmental bureaucracy in order to give them hope for the future.

But Kemp has problems of his own. Caught up in a tempestuous relationship with the vivacious Helen Townsend, he is forced to ask himself whether his devotion to the plight of the underprivileged is a mask for his own emotional emptiness.

These moving stories of damaged young lives are based on true case histories from the period. Social conditions have changed drastically over the last 50 years, but some things remain constant – the courage and resilience which so many deprived teenagers display in the teeth of adversity, and the tireless devotion of those who struggle to give them hope.

Colourful East End characters people the pages of this book. It is five years after the war, and bombed streets and houses still offer grim reminders of the warring past. In the East End, slum clearance begins to create new communities with sometimes positive and sometimes negative results. There is a new concern for the under privileged, those who have been orphaned abandoned or abused, but passion and compassion can still create conflict, and those who need help are not always ready to receive it. It is impossible not to identify with the young people, occasionally, saddened by their circumstances, at other times inspired by their courage. This novel follows one bewildered young man trying to make sense and help others less fortunate than himself, but finding that he too is very much at risk.

Frederick Patten©2006-2009 - All rights reserved