Arthur and George grow up worlds apart in late nineteenth century Britain Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village Arthur becomes a doctor, then a writer George a solicitor in Birmingham Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains in hard-working obscurity However as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events which made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages