HUTCHINSON & CO
FIRST PRINTING 1955
LONDON, UK
COVER ART BY LEY KENYON
THIS drama of Alf Betts and the Tiger Boys is a shockingly realistic and macabre story of London's adolescent hooligans; and few readers will deny that So Sharp The Razor is an arresting and strangely poignant novel of why juvenile crime is on the increase. Nor will there be many who can read this story without experiencing a disconcerting conviction that if we could secure for the teenagers of our larger cities happier and more comfortable homes for their formative years; green playing fields instead of bombed-sites for their robust games; worthier subjects for their conversation than sex and sadism, crime and coppers; if in fact, we assured for them these very ordinary amenities of civilisation, then there would be no Tiger Boys, no River Boys, no razor slashings, no gang rivalries, no futile murders of young Sams.
But, in those happier circumstances, this story could not have been written, and we should have been deprived of a dynamic and fast-moving tale that loses nothing by having real life for its inspiration.
