The Devil to Pay

Follows Jarl Carlson from his separation from the army, through his attendance at and expulsion from college, his affair with a young doctor, and his reunion with his wife in the 1960s, to the publication of his first novel

Born in the north of England shortly before World War I, Cyril Northcote Parkinson pursued a distinguished academic career on both sides of the Atlantic. Before he ever turned his hand to fiction, he became famous for unveiling "Parkinson's Law," the widely known conjecture that work expands to fill the time allowed for its completion. Parkinson wrote many books concentrated on British politics and economics, but his Richard Delancey series has drawn favorable comparisons to Forester and the Hornblower stories. In fact, Parkinson's first fictional effort, a "biography" of Hornblower, has enjoyed considerable acclaim. C. Northcote Parkinson died in Canterbury, England in 1993.