Shortly before his death in 1978, Paul Scott won the Booker Prize for Fiction. In this biography, the author explores Scott's family background in North London, his war years in India and the Far East, the development of his fiction and the characters on whom his most famous creations were based. The author also wrote "Ivy When Young", "Secrets of a Woman's Heart", "Handbook to Anthony Powell's Music of Time" and "Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book".