'It takes a bad climate to produce a good literature. It was too hot, too bright, too wide a world this for the doings of people to seem worth recording.' But, here well worth the superb record, on the cusp of World War Two, is the family saga of the Leytons of Johannesburg's northern suburbs, with their delinquent adolescent son Simon and their moody daughter, the aspirant writer Josephine. A swingeing satire, it is perfectly focused on their cross purposes, dreamy ideals and brutal realities, with even a guest appearance by George Bernard Shaw. 'The general tension between imaginative and literary poise can only be the work of a striking talent.' Stephen Wall in The Observer (1967)