Ripley Bogle By Wilson, Robert M

''I''m Ripley Bogle. I''m the prince of the pavements, I''m the Parkbench King and the cold winds of the outside permanently fleck my flesh. To come with me, you must brave the air and the wide, bare boredom. The vast outdoors is my house and hall. It''s with purpose, fear and gratitude that I stalk the streets of the city.''

As the scene shifts from the streets of London, to Oxford and Belfast, the tramp, Ripley Bogle, narrates his gripping and alarming story in which it becomes increasingly difficult to tell what is true and what is fiction.