A humorous, anarchic and near tragic novel about Robert Stevens and his friends who are in their last term at Oxford. In the weeks before the final examinations personal entanglements, Jacobean tragedy and a background of international confrontation come together in an unsettling climax. The author won the 1981 Royal Society of Literature Award for A Breed of Heroes. In 1983 he was chosen as one of the Best of Young British Novelists.