The Hidden Whistle and Flute: Stitch One

Q: What has thousands of buttons, weighs half a hundredweight, makes you sweat bucketfuls and helps raise thousands of pounds for charity? A: The author's whistle and flute (suit) which he wears proudly as the Pearly King of Peckham. George Major's story is a tough one. Abandoned in the 1940s by his mother, he spent years trying to find her, drawn to the pearly king tradition from the age of eight which he knew was in her family. An abusive father and a truly terrifying maiden Auntie Hilda saw young George packed off to an approved school in Surrey. Long before David Jason immortalised the character of Del Boy, George became a well-known character in the Peckham area and his life as a costermonger on the streets of South London was hilariously interrupted by a spell in the army - including eight weeks in the glasshouse in Colchester. George's deafness, coupled with his Norman Wisdom 'cheeky chappie' patter, endeared more than it annoyed, and in his twenties he was crowned Pearly King of Peckham. In this time-honoured capacity, he has fundraised tirelessly for charities far and wide and met many members of the royal family and dined with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Packed with Dickensian anecdotes and pearly lore, this memoir is not only the inspiring story of one man's fight against hardships to serve his country but also a portrait of a disappearing London and a tradition that still glitters brightly on our city streets.