Summary

At the outset of The Lonely Londoners, Moses goes to Waterloo Station to meet a friend of a friend who is arriving from Trinidad. While he has never met the man, Henry Oliver, it is not uncommon for him to travel to the train station to meet strangers; Moses is often asked to help new immigrants assimilate into London and find work and housing in the British metropolis. At the station, the protagonist sees Tolroy, an old acquaintance, who is waiting for his mother; he invited her to join him in London.

When the train arrives, Tolroy is shocked to see his mother disembark with his brother, sister, “a little boy and a little girl, then another old woman, tottering so much a guard had was to help she get out of the train” (8). He attempts to chide his mother for bringing...