AustLit

'It is 1963, and everything seems fine for the beginning of the academic year in Sydney’s new university. But the sudden death of Professor Bill Gilbey sets in train a political intrigue with disturbing implications

'For the suddenly elevated Head of Sociology, Richard Hogarth, Gilbey’s now vacant chair has to be filled, but individuals in and outside the campus have other ideas. The medicos see an opportunity to move the chair to Medicine, and Hogarth finds that what seemed straightforward is actually quite complicated. And in time the security service becomes involved as suspicions of communist infiltration arise.

'And behind the public posturings the private problems of the participants emerge to influence and confuse the sequence of events. This novel of campus intrigue was originally published in 1977 by Angus and Robertson, and was compared favourably to the work of C. P Snow in England. You can read some more about the background to the novel here.' (Publication summary)