A serial earwigger, Lenny piped up. ‘And us kids got Blue Peter, Crackerjack, Watch with Mother, Andy Pandy and Juke Box Jury. It ain’t all about you, ya know.’

Queenie burst out laughing. ‘Who you talking to, ya cheeky little monkey!’ Lenny might not be like other children of his age, but he was certainly a one-off. Everybody who met him fell in love with him.

‘For your information, young man, Juke Box Jury isn’t a kid’s programme. And if you don’t tidy up that bedroom of yours and put all your toys away, like I asked you to earlier, I won’t let you watch it any more,’ Viv piped up.

Lenny chuckled. ‘Yeah. You will.’

‘I’m starving, Mum,’ complained Brenda.

‘Me too,’ Lenny added.

Viv rolled her eyes at Queenie. ‘Picnic time it is then.’

Flicking through a local paper while eating a bacon sandwich in a cafe in Poplar, Vinny turned to page nine and could barely believe his eyes.

Scottish Pat slurped the rest of his tea and glanced at his watch. ‘We better be making tracks, Vinny. Time’s ticking on and we’ve still got a fair bit to do today.’

Transfixed, Vinny read the article in full. It was definitely him, standing there as large as life with his wife and two children.

‘Earth to Vinny,’ Scottish Pat joked, waving a hand in front of Vinny’s face. ‘What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

Vinny ripped the page from the paper, downed his tea and stood up. ‘I have. A ghost that’s gonna come in handy. Very fucking handy indeed.’

‘What you cooking for dinner tomorrow then, Queen? Is Albie gonna be eating with us too? I wonder what she’s like, this Yvonne. I can’t wait to meet her.’

Queenie pursed her lips. Vinny was now working for Willy Almond, a friend of the Kelly brothers. Willy was in the long firm game and, even though Queenie didn’t particularly understand how setting up a long firm worked, she got the gist of it. A company would be set up, would build up its credit rating, then go in with a massive order and shaft the suppliers. Vinny’s job was to collect the money for goods they sold. It was mainly electrical goods such as TVs and if people didn’t pay up on time, Vinny and the Scottish lad he worked with would give them a dig. The money was bloody good; so much so, she had saved a fair bit, as had Vinny. But ever since meeting his first girlfriend just over a month ago, Vinny hadn’t stopped spending. He was forever buying the girl gifts, and Queenie wasn’t happy about it.

‘We’re having beef and I dare say Albie will stagger home when the pub shuts at lunchtime. As for Yvonne, I obviously want to meet her, to see what she’s like, but Vinny’s head’s gone and I don’t want him getting serious with any girl at his age. He’s only bloody fifteen for Christ’s sake. He should be out spending his hard-earned wages on himself. A gold locket he bought for her last week, Viv. It’s too much too soon, in my opinion.’