The Midlands, Nottingham in particular, provide the background for many of the stories in The Second Chance. Authenticity of locality is created through idiom and colloquialism….

Sillitoe's gift is to make it clear that ordinary people are what life is all about, just as Paul Theroux has shown how artificial are the high and mighty, and how they need the catalyst of someone unrecognised and unknown. In 'No Name in the Street', which is akin to Beckett's writing if not quite as surreal, Albert roundly abuses his dog, but that is part of how they get on together: he threatens it, 'I'll put me boot in your soup-box' and constantly predicts, 'You'll get on my nerves'. He brushes his bowler-hat with his right-hand sleeve and neurotically polishes the toes of his black shoes with Kiwi. Sillitoe shows Beckett's characters to be very close at hand; they live just...