Wilson's first novel (but not first book), about the doomed attempts of a middle-aged novelist, Bernard Sands, to establish a writers' centre in a country house - a hot topic amongst writers at the moment. Concerns the clash of morals and 'the difficulties of the right-minded humanist'. Sands acknowledges his homosexual desires late in life, and feels his whole system of values and life work undermined when he experiences a sadistic reaction to the arrest of another gay man. This is Wilson's 'breakdown' novel.