"Tremendously capable and intimately revealing of a generation and a class." - Daily Telegraph "Mr. Martin writes with enjoyment and eclectic good taste." - Times Literary Supplement "One of the ten novels of the year." - Yorkshire Post "Anyone who feels as if there were a curtain between him and the younger generation should read this novel." - New Statesman "Keen observation and adroit writing." - Punch Perkin Young and his brother Simon are typical of their generation, the first to come of age in England after the Second World War. They live in Chelsea on their father"s money while they halfheartedly pursue literary and artistic success. Consumed with boredom and oppressed by a sense of the pointlessness of modern life, they spend their time at parties, in meaningless sexual encounters, or with their friends, who share their ennui. Perkin is in love with Meg, a young widow who lives with a famous novelist; Simon is after Anne, a girl so...