A Sentimental Dissenter

While bare biographical facts offer no guaranteed entry into the core of a writer’s creative concerns, the circumstances of Tom Paul
in’s life are as interesting as any of his novels. Born in London in 1948, Paulin was raised in a working-class family in the East End of the city. His father was a docker, and his mother a cleaner. Paulin’s father was a violent alcoholic, and his mother was a