Terence Blacker's 2000 novel Kill Your Darlings tells the story of a failed writer whose pretense of superiority to the literary world alternates with a pathetic attempt to find a place in it. Filled with insights on the art of the ghostwriter, the place of children's books in English letters, and the role Martin Amis plays in the minds of his contemporaries, it handsomely displays the author's talent as a novelist as well as (sometimes mordantly) the fruits of his years of experience as an editor, ghostwriter, journalist, children's author, and novelist. An accomplished impersonator and parodist, Blacker is one of the most versatile writers of his generation.

Born on 5 February 1948 into an army family, the son of Felicity Mary Buxton and career officer General Sir Cecil Blacker who retired from the service as adjutant general, Terence was educated at boarding schools from the age of seven. In "My...