In 2004 three major novels featuring Henry James as a character were published - one of them went on to win the Booker Prize. It was not David Lodge's. In this fascinating new book, a kind of postscript to his novel, Lodge traces the conception, writing and publication of his book, and reveals with extraordinary candour and revealingly comic moments the poignancy and indeed anguish of discovering too late that others were working on the same subject, and the odd feelings of rivalry and jealousy that this engendered. The result is a wonderfully comic work with serious psychological and literary insights which suggests nothing less than a short story by the Great Master, James, himself.
