We travel back to the 1960s with this book, and into a period of time that many people my age look back on nostalgically as 'simpler times', but by the time you get to the end, you realise that a smaller world does not always bring happiness. Helen is an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital in Croydon, and for a couple of years she has been having an affair with Gil, who is not only one of the doctors but turns out to be part of her extended family through marriage. Helen was taken in by Gil's charismatic personality but after the arrival of an extraordinary patient, she starts to view life differently. The patient is William who is 37 years old but has not left his house for around 25 years. He had been raised by his aunts who kept him out of sight 'for his own safety', but as they grew older and less able to take care of him, William's condition deteriorated badly, and by the time he was discovered, he was vey much under weight and his hair and beard were...