Stuart does not like the manuscript. Hes after a bestseller like what Tom Clancy writes". " But you are not an assassin trying to frazzle the president with anthrax bombs " I point out. You are an ex-homeless ex-junkie psychopath I do not add. This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer (a middle-class scum ponce if you want to be honest about it Alexander) & Stuart Shorter a homeless knife-wielding thief. Told backwards -- Stuarts idea -- it starts with a deeply troubled thirty-two-year-old & ends with a happy-go-lucky little boy of twelve. This brilliant biography winner of the Guardian First Book Award presents a humbling portrait of homeless life & is as extraordinary & unexpected as the man it describes."