Desmond sets off from Orpington in his Volvo coach, via Leicester, the M6, Windermere, Spalding, Reading and Greenham Common, as he learns more about Edward and Lesley.

Driving in the Dark is the primeval quest one, modernized for out Thatcherite England...This knight errant is a long-distance coach-driver from Orpington called Desmond...The clues are nebulous.

The quest takes the knight by motorway and lay-by through the romantic heartlands of modern England...meeting en route all kinds of characteristic persons and adventures.'

'[1] Penny Perrick from The Sunday Times is also positive: 'Desmond's cross-country ride in search of his son is a deftly described odyssey that places the battle of the sexes in a new arena.

His monologue throughout strikes me as totally authentic, but not only does Moggach get his lingo right, she thinks through his head, dramatizing his confusion, decency, wit, pain and determination.