Hugh Garner was a maverick in his life and in his fiction. His vision, in his novels and in the short stories which are his most memorable work, was formed by his multifarious experiences during the Depression, the Spanish civil war, North Atlantic convoy duty, and by his sympathy for what he called the bottom half of humanity.

Garner's name will always be associated with Toronto's Cabbagetown, where he attended school before quitting at the age of sixteen. He was born to Matthew and Annie Fozard Garner in Batley, Yorkshire, England, and came to Toronto with his parents when he was six. Shortly thereafter, Matthew Garner deserted the family, and there can be little doubt that Hugh Garner's sympathy for the working-class poor had its origin in the effect of this desertion on his mother. It also accounts for the fierce independence that was characteristic of the man...