The British Museum Is Falling Down

Go forth and multiply.

The Rhythm Method is the curse of Adam Appleby's life and the cause of his children's. As his thesis awaits its birth in the British Museum, his wife studies the thermometer at home. But it seems that "Vatican Roulette" has failed them again and a fourth little faithful is on the way. The serpent tempts Adam towards the chemists . . .

With a cast of conscience-pricked Catholics, tertiary-boom academics, passionately celibate priests and a literary lady with her libidinous daughter, David Lodge's sharply perceptive novel brilliantly captures the absurd, pitiful dilemma of Catholics in the days when the Pill was just an enticing rumour.