The Education of Eric Lane

Eric Lane has finally won the London success he once imagined at Oxford. His plays bring money, press attention and invitations from fashionable hosts, and his carefully furnished flat becomes a reward for years of uncertain work. Stephen McKenna introduces a playwright who takes pleasure in his new importance while weighing the demands of his family and the affection of Agnes Waring.

Set against England's wartime social life, the novel turns from public acclaim to the difficult claims of attachment. Lady Barbara Neave draws Eric into a relationship shadowed by uncertainty about Jack Waring, whose family has been unable to learn his fate. A conversation after a theatrical success moves between good luck, jealousy and the rules governing a private dinner. Readers interested in ambition and manners will find a closely observed contrast between the confidence of a celebrated writer and the emotional pressures his success cannot settle.