It is 1969, and Stephen meets up with old friend Astrid and her lover Spencer, and stays with them in the hippy household "The Hollies." Peace and love are tangible: until his passionate attraction for another girl in the household goes sour. He drifts into the radical arts scene and far-left politics, and finally into a squalid squat in London. A return to the idyllic "The Hollies" seems a good idea, but now the house has become a commune, and Spencer is the guru. When this too, inevitably, goes sour, Stephen has to try to understand what was real and what was just a dream?

Patrick Cooper is the author of O'Driscoll's Treasure, I Is Someone Else and Wings to Fly. He lives in England.You can learn more about Cooper at patrickcooper.me.uk/