Penelope Lively exemplifies her name and [with Next to Nature, Art she] surpasses her previous achievements in fiction. She has produced a splendid satire on the pretensions of the early 1970s in Britain, and made a number of timely sideswipes for sanity in her cool and didactic appraisal of talent. Framleigh is a 'creative Study Centre' run by Toby, a bisexual poseur, who screws money out of what he calls 'ordinary people' who come for week-long courses in art, pottery and sculpture. He is truly one of the most appalling of human beings. Talentless himself, he resents and puts down the glimmerings of merit in others. He is aided by Paula, sculptress and easy of virtue, Greg, American self-styled poet ('the poet is the message'), and Bob, potter and lecher, who makes his money out of 'Toby' jugs and honey-pots for the local department stores. These constitute the...