The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller (1959)

UK

Short Story

Author: Alan Sillitoe

Alan, a writer in his mid twenties, recalls his childhood encounters with Frankie Buller, a young man of about twenty (with a mental age of much less) who led an army of twelve-year-olds in frequent battles against children from the neighbouring housing estate, Sodom, just prior to the outbreak of The Second World War, in Sillitoe’s vivid, gently nostalgic, and decidedly melancholic short story. Iain.Stott