Paperback. Pub Date: September. 2008 Pages: 320 Publisher: Red Fox Set in The Underbelly of Victorian London's East End. JOE RAT follows the to fortunes of a tosher. Joe. Who LIVES by scavenging in the Sewers around the areA of Whitechapel. It's a fast-paced and vivid tale of survival in a society which fosters neither friendship nor trust. But Joe comes to know both after a chance encounter with a runaway girl. Bess. and the 'madman' who inhabits Pound's Field. With gangs lurking round every corner and a life spent in the rat-infested tunnels below the streets. Joe needs more than a prime piece of tosh to change his fortunes ...