One of Britain's most distinguished novelists Sir Angus Wilson was born in 1913. Educated at Westminster and Merton College, Oxford he joined the British Museum as a cataloguer before being called for service in 1941. His literary career began with a collection of short-stories published in 1949. These were followed by other short-story collections, novels and plays. Co-founder with Malcolm Bradbury of the MA programme in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, Wilson was appointed professor in 1967. Chair of many literary panels, including the Booker prize, and campaigner for homosexual equality he was knighted in 1980. He died in 1991.

Hamo Langmuir flies westwards round the world to examine the effects of his miraculous high-yielding rice, leaving a bleak and impotent existence behind him. His god-daughter, Alexandra Grant, travels with her magic of myths and mysticism along the hippy trail to the East. With a wry wit Angus Wilson brings into focus their separate adventures (Quixotic in Hamo's case, dreamlike in Alexandra's) until the tragic denouement when they meet in Goa. 'Enough thought, comedy, wit, excitement and pathos to keep a dozen less profligate and inventive novelists busy for years.' Francis King, Observer.