David Lodge returns to the campus for this funny and poignant novel, bringing together the elements that have made his writing so successful, (randy academics, departmental feuds and hopeless postgraduates etc), and a central protagonist, linguistics professor Desmond Bates, retired early, whose advancing loss of hearing is a constant source of domestic friction and social embarrassment. 'Seriously funny' "New Statesman", 'One of the most moving things I have read in a long while...extremely readable, pitch perfect writing' "Spectator