Derek Cushing - thirtyish, balding, unassuming archivist/researcher into European expansion in East Africa - is also the son of Gilbert, father of Giles, and husband of Diana. On the last count, though, he has begun to fear that he is wearing cuckold's horns. His plan for addressing the crisis leads him to take his wife, son and ageing father to stay at the Cornish mansion of the smooth-talking gallery owner he believes to be his wife's lover. But this, at least, is a place where disputes may be brought to a head.

First published in 1974, Cushing's Crusade was Tim Jeal's third novel, for which he won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

'Mr Jeal is a writer very much out of the ordinary, trenchant, elegant, subtle.' Sunday Telegraph

'A charming, highly enjoyable and most accomplished novel.' Nina Bawden, Telegraph

'Extremely funny, perceptive and moving.' Guardian