Charles, a recently retired academic principal, reflects on a single thread of his life, a segment that has pursued him almost since the start of his teaching career. He realises now that he reflects, that this part of his life history is inextricably bound up with his relationship with his late mother, who throughout her married life exerted control over the entire family and over Charles in particular, ultimately leading him to enter into a loveless marriage with Gilly his wife, a marriage which he had dutifully stayed with for almost forty years. However, during most of this period of...