John Bowen

In John Bowen's The Birdcage Peter Ash and Norah Palmer have been living together for nine years. By turns wildly funny and frightening The Birdcage is a novel about the end of a love affair, the repercussions and the emotional fallout. Meer

Featuring a story about the Baker family: the father Justin is a retired Colonel, the mother, Teresa, is over-possessive and refuses to admit that her sons have grown-up, the sons Julian and Charles, one is a married advertising copywriter with a penchant for extra-marital affairs while the other is withdrawn and suicidal. Meer

It is also a critique of powerful corporations that are controlled and organised by the greed of those who operate them. An absorbing and adult novel, Storyboard cemented John Bowen's reputation as a mature and intelligent novelist when it was first published in 1960. Meer

In a neglected graveyard we encounter both the quick and the dead. Deceased Harry is waiting for his wife, Beth, to join him. Unable to be seen, or to communicate with the living, Harry can only watch helplessly as his daughter Angie wheels the deaf and ailing Beth to his graveside. Meer