Daniel Laverock – starving and nearly penniless at the height of the Great Depression – takes the only job he can find, as manager of The Pantheon, a rundown old silent cinema owned by Sam Yudenow. Situated in Fowlers End, one of London’s most neglected areas, The Pantheon has room for 600 seated with 29 standing but it is, quite literally, a flea-pit.

Gerald Kersh (1911-1968) is best known for his tale of London lowlife Night and the City, later made into a film by Jules Dassin starring Richard Widmark (1950) and remade in 1992, relocated to New York and starring Robert De Niro.

Fowlers End was first published in 1957 and described by Anthony Burgess as ‘one of the great comic novels of the century.’ Building on Kersh’s own experience as a cinema manager – one of his many varied jobs – it is a comic romp with echoes of Dickens, Rabelais, and The Beggar’s Opera. As well as musicians accompanying the silent films (‘she can make that pianner talk, once she gets ‘er Duke-o-Yorks on it’), there are bookings for a number of variety acts: ‘Johnny Mayflower – Trick Skater; Johnny Lambsbreath – the Man Who Made the Prince of Wales Laugh; Eena – Oriental Contortionist; Hanky and Panky – Eccentric Dancers; The Tramp Juggler; Gritto – The Man Who Eats Bricks.’

In Chapter 6, Daniel Laverock starts as manager and meets a colourful collection of characters, both customers and staff. In this extract he is called upon to throw out a customer who has snuck into The Pantheon without paying.