Nigel Balchin

Bill Sarratt is a civil servant working on the war effort. Thwarted at every turn by bureaucracy and the vested interests of big business, the seemingly unflappable Bill is also on the verge of losing his wife Marcia to a literary poseur named Stephen. As the bombs continue to fall, Bill must decide whether he his willing to compromise his principles and prevent his life from crumbling before his very eyes.

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains language and views that reflect the attitudes of its time.

Jim Petersen is a film scriptwriter working in Hollywood. Behind with an assignment, he puts his wife Sarah on a plane to New York so that he can concentrate on his work. The plane bursts into flames before it can leave the runway and Sarah is killed. In Paris a short while later, Jim meets a woman called Katherina, a Yugoslav who bears a striking resemblance to Sarah. She asks Jim to take her to Yugoslavia, using Sarah’s passport, so that she can smuggle some valuables out of the country. Lonely and at a loose end, Jim agrees. Once they reach Belgrade, it slowly dawns on him that he has bitten off more than he can chew and that, as well as being foolish, he has imperilled both himself and Katherina by agreeing to undertake the errand.

James Manning is perfectly content. He has a successful life as a businessman in the city, a bright young thing of a wife, Jill, and an idyllic home in the countryside, where he is a local magistrate. The only fly in the ointment is the 'Honbill' - the Honourable William Bule, a gentleman with too much time on his hands.

When a young man is knocked off his bicycle and subsequently dies, James is sure that Bule is the culprit - after all, he saw a scratch on the Honbill's car the day of the accident and it matches the description to a T. But events take an unexpected turn when James discovers that it was really Jill driving that night, and he is torn between obligations to his wife and to his profound sense of right and wrong.

A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD was the inspiration for SEPARATE LIES, a 2005 British film adapted by Academy Award-winning writer Julian Fellowes and starring Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett.