A Way Through the Wood

A psychological study of marriage, loyalty and justice, A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD is a remarkable post-war novel.

'A superb storyteller' SUNDAY TIMES 'I'd place him up there with Graham Greene' Philippa Gregory

'Balchin writes about timeless things, the places in the heart' Ruth Rendell

'Balchin has been absurdly overlooked for too long' Julian Fellowes

James Manning is perfectly content. He has a successful life as a businessman in the city, a bright young thing of a wife, Jill, and an idyllic home in the countryside, where he is a local magistrate. The only fly in the ointment is the 'Honbill' - the Honourable William Bule, a gentleman with too much time on his hands.

When a young man is knocked off his bicycle and subsequently dies, James is sure that Bule is the culprit - after all, he saw a scratch on the Honbill's car the day of the accident and it matches the description to a T. But events take an unexpected turn when James discovers that it was really Jill driving that night, and he is torn between obligations to his wife and to his profound sense of right and wrong.

A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD was the inspiration for SEPARATE LIES, a 2005 British film adapted by Academy Award-winning writer Julian Fellowes and starring Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett.

“One of the hopes of British novel-writing . . . A writer of genius”

Balchin's psychological drama now reads as a searing indictment of middle-class hypocrisy... To reveal more would be to do a disservice to this inexplicably neglected author, whose skilful way with plot is only one of the delights of this flawlessly written work - THE TIMES

The missing writer of the forties

A superb storyteller - SUNDAY TIMES

A writer of genius

Balchin writes about timeless things, the places in the heart

Nigel Balchin was born in 1908 and graduated in Natural Science from Cambridge University. During the Second World War he worked as a psychologist in the personnel section of the British War Office, before becoming Deputy Scientific Advisor to the Army Council. He wrote numerous books, including How to Run a Bassoon Factory (under the pseudonym Mark Spade), and Darkness Falls from the Air. He died in 1970.

A psychological study of marriage, loyalty and justice, A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD is a remarkable post-war novel. 'A superb storyteller' SUNDAY TIMES 'I'd place him up there with Graham Greene' Philippa Gregory 'Balchin writes about timeless things, the places in the heart' Ruth Rendell 'Balchin has been absurdly overlooked for too long' Julian Fellowes James Manning is perfectly content. He has a successful life as a businessman in the city, a bright young thing of a wife, Jill, and an idyllic home in the countryside, where he is a local magistrate. The only fly in the ointment is the 'Honbill' - the Honourable William Bule, a gentleman with too much time on his hands.When a young man is knocked off his bicycle and subsequently dies, James is sure that Bule is the culprit - after all, he saw a scratch on the Honbill's car the day of the accident and it matches the description to a T. But events take an unexpected turn when James discovers that it was really Jill driving that night, and he is torn between obligations to his wife and to his profound sense of right and wrong.A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD was the inspiration for SEPARATE LIES, a 2005 British film adapted by Academy Award-winning writer Julian Fellowes and starring Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett.

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