English weather - Neil Ferguson

It's raining high-explosives on the night that Greg Harris is conceived, but it's his mother's marriage that will be blown apart. For the man who by rights should have been his father is away defending the British Empire, while his mother makes slightly shamefaced hay amid the anarchy of the London Blitz.When the dust and smoke have cleared, Greg comes kicking and squalling into the world, as if he knows a childhood of orphanages and adoption lie in store. His first family is a community of nuns, but from the outset it's clear that this is a very special boy. A certain charisma, a certain strength, make him stand out in the crowd: all his life he'll attract love and trouble in equal measure. But as fast as Greg can grow, society seems to be changing all about him: is Britain ready for him - and is he ready for modern Britain?