The career of Robert Nye might usefully be compared to that of Anthony Burgess. Like Burgess, Nye is a prolific writer with an extensive bibliography and a reputation as a critic. Again, like Burgess, he is primarily known as a novelist but has written with distinction in other modes too, although he would claim that his true vocation is poetry and that the writing of novels merely supports his principal calling. His work as a poet and author of children's fiction has won acclaim, and his collection of short stories Tales I Told My Mother (1969) won the James Kennaway Memorial Award. Less-well-known achievements include editing various volumes of poetry by poets as diverse as William Barnes and Sir Walter Ralegh and editing a volume in a series on the English sermon. He has also written several plays for radio. His reputation rests, however, mainly on his novels. These...