[1] Ann lives in Hampstead and works for the BBC in Bush House in London.

She is recently engaged but her academic fiancé Gerald is leaving for America, intending her to follow.

Within days she has "encouraged adultery, committed a breach of promise, given up her job, abetted an abortion".

But William's a compulsive philanderer, twisting the truth to cover his tracks... She based the title character on writer Alan Sharp with whom she had a daughter, "I didn’t exaggerate his character" recalled Beryl Bainbridge of her muse.

[2] Katha Pollitt in The New York Times described the novel as being both witty and subtly and ominously grotesque, she finishes her review with "This is a strange, sly novel with a great deal to say about the mixture of resentment and dependency often mistaken for love.