`We were all more or less thieves at Lant Street. But we were that kind of thief that rather eased the dodgy deed along, than did it . . . We could pass anything, anything at all, at speeds which would astonish you. There was only one thing, in fact, that had come and got stuck - one thing that had somehow withstood the tremendous pull of that passage - one thing that never had a price put to it. I mean of course, Me.' Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, is born among petty thieves - fingersmiths - in London's Borough. From the moment she draws breath, her fate is linked to another orphan, growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away . . . A modern day Dickens, Sarah Waters is one of Britain's rising stars.