'Unlike any other person I had come across Welch seemed to be speaking particularly to me'
Alan Bennett 'Vivid ... surprising ... an exquisite balance of pain and beauty' Guardian Orvil
Pym does not fit in. A waifish eccentric sensitive fifteen-year-old he hates school and
longs to be alone. Spending his Summer holidays in a genteel Surrey hotel with his mysterious
father and two brothers who don't understand him he explores ancient churches spies on a man
rowing in the river and collects antiques escaping into his own singular aesthetic world.
First published in 1945 this is an unforgettable portrayal of a young man's sensuous
coming-of-age. 'A heightened sensual journey ... it is Orvil's vibrant energy that allows this
book to bubble ... beautifully odd ... spectacular' Independent
