Keith Alldritt had three novels published between 1976 and 1979, starting a sequence intended, according to the dust jackets, to "deal with the course of Midlands society." All three are rooted in exact description, not only of places around Wolverhampton in the West Midlands but also of such details as the way meals are served and what is eaten. The first. The Good Pit Man: A Novel (1976), is set in the present, while the second, The Lover Next Door (1977); more ambitiously is set primarily in the years of World War II and seen through the eyes of a small boy. The third, Elgar on the Journey to Hanley (1979), goes back to the end of the nineteenth century to give a friend's view of composer Edward Elgar. Each novel was welcomed by reviewers on publication and initial hardback printings sold out in Great Britain, though Alldritt is so far known only...