This was John O'Loughlin's first novel and it reflects his youthful infatuation, at the time (1976) with writers like James Joyce and Henry Miller, who inspired him to pursue a literary vocation and to draw a character, one Michael Savage, whose determination to 'change worlds' by abandoning his hum-drum clerking for literature, come what may, was based around the author's own experiences and ambitions. Not only is this a damn good autobiographical novel but it is a good piece of fiction as well, drawing on a variety of friends, colleagues and relatives of the author to fashion a story in which other characters also play a substantial role, whether as friends or enemies.