Detailed Description

Thomas Harris is on the cusp of great success as a classical composer. But for every success he gets a knock back. This gripping, superbly crafted novel portrays the classical music world of the late fifties. It is Stanley Middleton’s second novel and his personal favourite.
Stanley Middleton, who died in 2009, was the author of forty-three novels, all of them first published by Hutchinson. ‘Holiday’ won The Booker Prize in 1973. After a spell in India during the Second World War, he worked as a school teacher until retirement.
‘Every page is stamped with its author’s sharp, crotchety, attractive ego-bristling, staccato dialogue, sardonic aphorisms about music or sex or ambitious local bigwigs’.