Summer Season — Alan Clark

First published in 1963, Summer Season records several anxious days in the life of Kenneth Crane, unemployed graduate. Crane has taken a temporary post as tutor to the young son of a luminary in a small seaside town. Crane finds life difficult enough, but almost intolerably so when he finds himself number-one suspect on a possible murder charge. For the delectable Kitty du Chair, by even contemporary standards a remarkably advanced teen-ager, disappears. She has been seen consorting with Crane. The police close in and Crane's behaviour becomes more erratic (and hilarious). Summer Season is like a Jacques Tati film, having the same dream-like, almost surrealist quality. The humour is infectious and will be caught by very many readers.