North

The scene is primarily set at a boys school in Oxford but events also occur in other locations including London, Paris, Italy. The plot revolving around a web of relationships manipulated by North, a student, and observed by an unnamed narrator predictably ends in disaster. The author - Brian Martin, an English teacher - has interwoven throughout the book illusions to literature - the writings of Milton, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Keats. The descriptions of places and of the daily life of the characters and the literary references make this book more than just an expose of relationships and human foibles plus a study of the control that North appears to have over the lives of others. A powerfully written book.