A Married Man - Hardcover

READ, Piers Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0436409690 ISBN 13: 9780436409691

Publisher: Secker & Warburg, 1979

Synopsis

Read, Piers Paul. A Married Man. First Ediiton. London, Secker & Warburg, 1979. 22.3cm x 13.7cm. 263 (5) pages. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket. In protective Mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. John Strickland is a successful barrister who has been married to pretty and agreeable Clare for twelve years. They have two charming children, a London house, a cottage in the country and the family get on well enough with his mother and his wife's Roman Catholic parents. In the summer of 1973, while staying in Clare's childhood home in Norfolk, John stumbles on a short story by Tolstoy which suddenly makes him feel that his life is not what he had meant it to be. Imperceptibly Clare, the submissive girl he had courted, has developed a personality of her own and smothered his socialist ideals and over the years they have got into the habit of spending their evenings and their occasional holidays abroad with their richer friends. Until he reads the Tolstoy story and develops what he calls 'Ilychitis', John had been under the impression that he was a successful and a contented man; after this nothing about his life satisfies him. His sudden re-commitment to the Labour Party is ridiculed by his wife and their friends so he starts using his political activities as a cover for seeing other women. Despite their ideological differences, a social life as a popular young couple that he finds ever more alien and his infidelities, he still thinks of himself as a married man. It takes two to maintain a marriage or carry on an affair, however, and he misunderstands and dangerously underestimates both the women in his life. Against the background of the industrial and political crisis of strikes, power-cuts and the three-day week, his life takes a brutally violent and tragic turn.

About this title

About the Author

Piers Paul Read is a well-known journalist and the author of several acclaimed and bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction, including the phenomenal bestseller Alive!. He is married to Emily Read and they have four children. He is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Evening Standard, The Times and the Spectator

About this edition

• Publisher: Secker & Warburg
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0436409690
• ISBN 13: 9780436409691
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1