Kif An Unvarnished History Author:Josephine Tey;Gordon Daviot Originally Published in 1929 under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot, this was Josephine Tey's (a Scottish writer actually named Elizabeth Mackintosh) first book. "The story is of an innocent, whose sufferings and poverty during the lean years after the First World War led him gradually but inevitably into a life of crime, and so almost by accid... more »ent to his tragic end.
Kif is a country boy, an orphan whose longing for a life beyond the fields and byres leads him to join the Army. In the mud and agony of Flanders he meets and makes friends with a wider variety of people than he would ever have believed possible.
After the war Kif, like millions of others, is homeless and out of work....He invests his racetrack winnings in a bookmaker's business. But one of the partners runs away with all their capital, and Kif is down to rock-bottom again. It is then that he meets Angel Carroll once more, and through Angel his sister Baba, the girl who becomes Kif's passion and obsession. So starts the last and darkest phase of his shortlife."« less