Wilberforce is a thirty something IT whizkid with a hugely successful software company to his name. He is also emotionally crippled (courtesy of disengaged parents and emotional neglect as a child) who is chewed up and spat out by most of the people he meets. The two people who actually care about him, his business partner and his wife, are in turn chewed up and spat out by Wiberforce. I read the book with an appalled fascination, witness to Wilberforce's determined and relentless track towards self-destruction using his alcoholic 'inheritance' from his friend Francis. The book could variously be called The Road To Perdition or How To Ruin Your Child In 308 Pages. It was great!
Also great is Torday's new novel due out in March: The Girl On The Landing. Basically murder, skeletons in closets, criminal insanity and treatment of serious mental illness! I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed it.
by Christine
