In the story "The Destructors," by Graham Green, set in or around 1954, in London, England, just nine years after the end of World War II, we meet four boys who act like most boys of their age. Mike, T., Blackie, Joe, and Summers, all members of the Wormsley Commons gang, try to get themselves into mischief without hurting anyone. They do minute things such as catching "free" rides on the buses until they get caught, and other harmless tasks to keep them occupied, that is until a new "leader exposes the group to a new idea The story follows these boys as they finish their new task even though some want out.

Old Misery, whose real name was Mr. Thomas, was a man who had been thought to be too mean to spend money on the house in which he lived. During the bombing of the war, the...