[In "Next to Nature, Art," something] is wrong at Framleigh Hall, deep in the Warwickshire countryside. And we soon discover the problem is that the 18th-century manor house is now the Framleigh Creative Study Centre, an "artistic sanctuary."… Toby, Paula, his mistress, Bob, a potter, and Greg, a pretentious Yank poet, talk endlessly about art while having almost no talent themselves. But they are shrewd salesmen of the "Framleigh Ideal," and they impress the rather humble and confused nonartists who, fleeing their mundane lives, pay good money to spend a week there. It's a con, of course. As the middle-aged housewife Mary Chambers—the author's voice of English common sense—soon discovers. Cunningly contrasted with the guests and Toby and his self-involved crew of failed artists is the spontaneous play of Paula's small son, Jason, and a prankish village kid named Kevin…. Through the children the author seems...