SOURCE: “Expatriates Gossiping in Florence,” in Spectator, June 8, 1991, p. 36.

In the following review of The Ant Colony, Illis writes that despite the many likeable characters in the novel, the story is not compelling.

The English novel is regularly accused of being too quiet, too polite and too safe. It is often described in negative terms: it is unadventurous or unambitious. Francis King has written novels, such as Act of Darkness, to which none of these adjectives apply. They are all, however, appropriate in the case of The Ant Colony.

Jack, a young, diffident, working-class virgin, and Iris the ‘classy’ titled daughter of a famous mother, and also a virgin, arrive in Florence to teach English after the war. They spend a year acquiring experience and then leave, sadder and wiser. The circle they inhabit is the expatriate colony, which has the usual characteristics of expatriate communities: it is...