John O'Connell worked for several years at the London listings magazine Time Out, where he was Books Editor. He now writes, mostly about books, for The Times, The Guardian, New Statesman and The National. He is the author of I Told You I Was Ill: Adventures in Hypochondria (Short Books, 2005) and The Midlife Manual (Short Books, 2010). He is 37 and lives in south London with his wife and two children.

A period-perfect exploration of ambition and resentment, ideal for a misty autumn night by the fireside