A Married Man

John Strickland is a middle-aged barrister with a wife, Clare, and two children. Staying with his parents-in-law at their house in Norfolk, he reads Leo Tolstoy's novella, The Death of Ivan Illych, and this precipitates a mid-life crisis. What has happened to his youthful ideals to do good in the world? What has happened that has made his marriage go stale? It is the period of strikes, political crisis and the `three-day week': Strickland determines to stand as a Labour MP. His ambition is mocked by his wife and, blaming her for his life's stagnation, he starts an affair with another woman.

'Compelling… A Married Man is a sharp chronicle of England in an uneasy time. It confirms that Piers Paul Read is one of Britain's most intelligent and disturbing writers.'

Malcolm Bradbury, New York Times Book Review

'A wonderfully observed study of ambition, money, politics and the legal profession, full of recognisable scandals and skulduggery.'

Paul Theroux, The Sunday Times

'A story full of suspense and subtleties… Mr Read has outdone himself.'

New York Times

'A superb novel…an intricate and wholly absorbing portrait of a man in middle-aged crisis.'

The Daily Telegraph

'Excellent…totally honest, totally absorbing, and says many things which are worth saying.'

Auberon Waugh, The Standard

'Eminently readable…a novel which is both subtle and powerful.'

John Braine, Sunday Telegraph