Riceyman Steps

About “Riceyman Steps”

Riceyman Steps is set in Clerkenwell, London, where Henry Earlforward runs a gloomy, dusty secondhand book store and lives a miserly existence marked by frugality and isolation. The novel follows his marriage to Violet, a middle-aged widow, and explores how his obsession with saving money affects her, his servant Elsie, and her war-injured lover Joe, reflecting the broader disillusionment of the post-World War I era.