Primary themes include marriage, adultery, and incest within a group of civilised and educated people.

Set in and around London, it depicts a power struggle between grown-up middle-class people who are lucky to be free of real problems.

Martin Lynch-Gibbon is a well-to-do 41-year-old wine merchant whose childless marriage to an older woman called Antonia has been one of convenience rather than love.

After arguing with Antonia, he goes to the station to pick up Palmer's half-sister Honor Klein, a lecturer in anthropology who is visiting from Cambridge.

The unexpected visitor turns out to be Honor, who notices Georgie's handbag that was left behind in her rush out the door.

After an angry confrontation with Palmer, who announces that he and Honor will be travelling abroad, Martin receives a package of hair from Georgie.

In A Severed Head, Murdoch succeeds in presenting a middle-aged bourgeois who initially thinks of himself as a survivor but realises that he is in fact a victim.

With less philosophising and more shagging than Murdoch's other books, it is a joy to see this wonderful writer let her hair (and her knickers) down.

[2] In New York, after four previews, the Broadway production, also directed by May, opened on 28 October 1964 at the Royale Theatre, where it ran for only 29 performances.

The cast included Sheila Burrell, reprising her role as Honor Klein, Robin Bailey again playing Martin Lynch-Gibbon, and Jessica Walter as Georgie.

The novel was also made into a 1970 film starring Claire Bloom, Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough and Ian Holm.

A five-part adaptation of A Severed Head by Stephen Wakelam appeared on the BBC Radio 4 series 15 Minute Drama in August 2015.