Devlin Urquhart, an Oxford student disillusioned with his privileged past and the aesthetic life, heads for Yorkshire and a simpler identity as a gardener. But his past soon catches up with him, and everywhere Devlin roams, the tendrils of his former life reach out to him.
Meanwhile the spirited daughter of an eminent London psychologist rebels against her father's bombastic behaviour by throwing a treasured family heirloom against an antique mirror, shattering both the mirror and her father's complacency.
Devlin and Janet seem destined for each other - but will their rebellions against the constraints of society bind them together, or tear them apart?
MacNiece's only adult novel is a light-hearted confection and a real treat for anyone interested in his work.
Autorentext
Frederick Louis MacNeice was born in Belfast in 1907, brought up in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim and educated in England. He studied Classics and Philosophy at Oxford and was known as a translator, literary critic, playwright, autobiographer, BBC producer and feature writer as well as a poet. He died in London in 1963, and was buried in Carrowdore churchyard in County Down, with his mother.Jon Stallworthy, FBA FRSL is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow and (twice) Acting President of Wolfson College, a poet, and literary critic. Stallworthy's biography of Louis MacNeice was published in 1996.