The protagonist and narrator Smith is a young criminal from the working class, who is in a Borstal. With the help of flashbacks we are told how he got into the Borstal. Smith robs a bakery and is caught by the police shortly thereafter.

The short story has many autobiographic elements. Allan Silitoe was born in a family of the working class in England 1930s. His father often was unemployed and couldn’t pay for the bills. He even was arrested for his debt. His mother worked in the industry to earn some money for the family. Silitoe left school at the age of 14 and worked in the same industry his father and mother did before him. Later, he joined the air force. After coming back from war, he got tuberculosis and got retired by the age of 21. Silitoe was member of the “Angry Young Men”, an association of British writers who expressed their displeasure about the inequalities in society.