The Brewer's Boy

It is 1750 and Daniel, the 10-year-old foundling living with Dick Bates is worried. Dick is the owner of the Peacock Alehouse in White Cross Street, Islington. It's a thriving alehouse and Daniel is very happy there, looking after the horses and sleeping in the stables. There has already been a minor fire, which Daniel escaped from and took the horses to safety. Someone is trying to get rid of the Peacock, but who?


On the opposite side of Chiswell Street from the Peacock, Sam Whitbread's huge new brewery has been built and Sam is making a fortune from his porter. 


Kate, having walked away from her drunken mother and her awful home on the other side of Old Street, is taken in by her Uncle Tom and Aunt Joan and learns what it's like to have a loving, caring woman looking after her. She also gets a hopeless crush on Sam Whitbread, a tall, handsome young man in his early twenties, much to the disgust of the Shewell's son, Barney.


Dick suspects that Tom Shewell and Sam Whitbread are up to no good, and asks Daniel to act as a spy for him and let him know if he finds out anything suspicious. Daniel is delighted to be able to help his master, who has been very kind to him since he picked him up off the streets a year ago. Daniel still can't really remember what happened before then (but it comes back to him by the end of the story).


What happens to the Peacock and its inhabitants? Does Kate get over her passion for Sam Whitbread? Do Sam and Tom stay as partners? And, of course, what is Daniel's story?