Brian Glanville is a prolific and extremely talented, if sometimes careless, novelist. He was born in London on 24 September 1931, the son of James Arthur and Florence Manches Glanville. He was educated at Charterhouse, a public school (1945-1949). When he was twenty-one he went to live in Florence, Italy, where he stayed for two years, and then for another year in Rome--"but Heaven knows," he later wrote, "how many times I have been back to Italy. There's no doubt that living there had a great influence on whatever I have written." A survey of his work confirms this influence.

Alberto Moravia (an Italian with whose work Glanville's can be linked) once said, "A dog does three things in life: it hunts, it plays and it sleeps. Human beings do exactly the same." European literature is full of hunting and sleeping, at least sleeping around. Playing is Glanville's subject...