The Breaking of Bumbo

The Breaking of Bumbo was first published fifty years ago when the author was twenty-two. It was an immense success and caused something of stir.

To quote from the original blurb, ''Bumbo Bailey is a coward and a bit of a hero; a martyr, an egoist, a clown, a debs'' delight and a Suez mutineer; a non-conformist Old Etonian Guardee . Partly his own victim, and partly the victim of his own small world, he is Made, and has his Season; and is Broken. Bumbo pursues his career from Caterham to an Officers'' Training School; from the Officers'' Training School to Wellington Barracks; and from Wellington Barracks to any number of wildly assorted parties. He learns a lot about Sex and Love and Discipline - and a little about himself; in the end he behaves very oddly indeed; and faces, in his own way, the consequences.''

This however is more than a period piece, the social milieu it describes may have vanished, but the novel''s satirical brio lifts it above its immediate provenance; it continues to read freshly.

''This bitter, ironical and very clever first novel paints a devastating portrait of an upper-class misfit, half clown, half Hamlet . . .'' Evening Standard

''Gruesomely funny . . . a violent virility that is infectious'' Tatler