The main character in ‘Stone Cold’ is Link, who is homeless through no fault of his own. When Link turns 16 his step Dad starts to put pressure on him to get a job and pay his own way. Before long Link finds himself homeless in London and with no idea how he will survive on the streets. He meets Ginger, another homeless person living in London. Ginger shows Link how to survive on the streets and the places other people in their situation can go to. This helps us identify how hard it is for homeless people to come to grips with their new lives and without help they may struggle to survive. When Link starts learning about begging we can clearly see that society frowns upon homelessness and most people are unwilling to help, ’Is that what you do - beg?’
‘Yep. All day, every day. And sometimes I don’t make the price of a sandwich.’ This is the harsh reality that people are unwilling to spare a little for someone in need because they believe what they read in the papers (these people will spend any money you give them on drink and drugs). Swindells describes these people as ’Solcredulists’ and it really hits home to Link that he may not receive the benefits he applied for and he gets infuriated when he hears about the ’Solcredulists’ ‘But it’s a lie.’ I cried. ‘There ought to be a law against it!’ referring to the tabloids fabricating evidence about homeless people. Link soon finds himself on his own when Ginger goes to meet some friends one day and doesn’t return. He then meets Gail while trying to get over Ginger. Gail has recently become homeless and asks for Links help because she has no idea what she must do to live on the streets. For a while Link and Gail are doing fine, even though Link feels there is something strange about Gail, then Link finds out Ginger may have been murdered. So he starts to investigate with Gail and it almost leads to him being murdered. By a psychotic ex army sergeant named Shelter who is trying to clean up the...