It was the joke of London when Buckingham Palace was bombed and the King said he now felt like a Londoner. The silly old bugger should have been in the East End during the blitz, stepping across gaping holes in the road with electricity cables and gas mains open to the elements; he should have heard the screaming of the women and children as fires raged and people tried frantically to find relatives and even family pets. Suddenly even a scabby old cat was important.

Still, it was over now, the building had begun and a new breed of youth was emerging. The wide boy arrived in 1945 and was to become a role model for the children growing up. The country had undergone a change, a big change. Old values were slowly disappearing, the King and Queen were no longer just to be obeyed and worshipped from afar, the young ones wanted none of what their parents had endured. There was more work and money to be spent.

Women who had never been outside the home before had been earning good money in the war, and had enjoyed their independence. Now the ones with husbands back home were adjusting once more to being ‘the wife’, or ‘her indoors’, and the widows were keeping their heads above water as best they could. It was a sad woman who didn’t have a full belly once her husband was demobbed. Children were being born left, right and centre, the new generation that was to change the world. Or so they thought.

As for Danny and Boysie, they had lived through the Blitz, seen bodies dug out of mounds of steaming rubble, and witnessed all the horrors of the war from the home front. They were changed as a result. Like many young men they had an outlook on life that shocked the older generation.

It was survival of the fittest now. That was the law of the streets where Boysie and Danny were about to make their mark.

As the twins drove home they chatted.

‘Shall we go up the club later? After the bit of business.’

Danny nodded as he drove. ‘If you like, Boysie. We’ve got to see The Aunt beforehand, though. I’ll drop round Auntie Bernie’s so we can get spruced up first.’

‘I can’t wait for tonight. It’s like a dream come true, ain’t it? I’m so excited inside.’

Boysie’s euphoria made Daniel laugh.

‘Just remember, after tonight, there’s no going back.’

Boysie shrugged. ‘I don’t want to go back, I can’t wait to get started.’