A Watch In The Night Book

An aging man is watching Shakespeare on television in the setting of a modest suburban house. Do not be deceived into thinking that this is the beginning of something boring or familiar. For the man is Julian Ramsay, biographer of the literary Lampitt dynasty, and the famous black actress playing Margaret of Anjou was once, perhaps, the love of his life. Julian's mind wanders to a night that began with making love to the young and gorgeous Dodie and ended in the small hours of the morning outside the flat where James Petworth Lampitt lived and died. This is the story of that one evening, in the course of which Julian journeys from London's high society to its low life, meets many characters from his past, revisits memories, and at last unravels the mysteries of the two violent deaths that dominate the Lampitt Chronicles. A. N. Wilson has constructed a masterful novel of manners out of the most whimsical and unlikely elements: murder, the ghost of Shakespeare, and the ironies and confusions of sex. From the joys of acting to the pangs of unrequited love, from a reunion of aging Fascists in London to a wintry romantic interlude in Venice, the plot of this tour de force leads the reader with consummate skill towards a wholly unexpected conclusion.

Publishers Weekly

What is the true story of James "Jimbo" Petworth Lampitt's death? Was Raphael Hunter implicated in his mysterious fall? And what about Virgil D. Everett, whose demise was similar to Jimbo's? Readers of Wilson's four previous novels about the Lampitt family as recalled by narrator Julian Ramsay (the most recent was Hearing Voices) will enjoy this concluding volume in the Lampitt Chronicles. Wilson's audience knows, however, that the author's sinuous, digressive path to these final revelations is as rewarding as the details of the plot. Here, again, Julian ruminates on some recurring topics: the nature of the creative process, the preeminence of Shakespeare in the pantheon of writers, the role of Christian theology in daily life, the prevalence of homosexuality among the British upper class, the aristocracy's support of conservative (here fascist) political activities. Wilson reserves his greatest scorn for Raphael Hunter. A talentless writer and opportunist who has achieved success, wealth and celebrity ("this Booker Judge, this presenter of `Perspectives' on the telly'') on the strength of his bogus biography of Jimbo, Hunter finally confesses his part in the "accident'' that took Jimbo's life. Amply foreshadowed in the previous books, the disclosure comes not as a surprise but as a rich culmination of Wilson's masterful portrait of a generation in its heyday and decline. Presented with ironic humor and dense with engaging ideas and indelible characters, the series and this final book are well worth a reader's time and attention. (Oct.)