Vine's novel is inhabited by ordinary passengers, tube aficionados, pickpockets, buskers, vigilantes, and children who go "sledging" on the roofs of train carriages as an initiation rite.

The title of the book refers to the legend of King Solomon's magic carpet of green silk which, as it could fly and brought everyone to their destination, is likened to the underground.

There gather a group of misfits and weirdos, including a squatter, whose dreams of the good life have time and again been shattered as they are constantly victimised by society.

There is 24-year-old Alice, an aspiring musician who leaves her husband and new-born baby only to end up busking in various stations in central London.

There is Tom, who, after an accident, drops out of music school and is reduced to busking as well but who dreams of one day starting his own business.