A Novelist With Writer's Block. Benson's Energies Have Been Diverted Away From His Book On Liverpool's Slave Trade And Into Teaching Creative Writing. The Pupils Who Bring Him Their Fantasies Are A Sad, Dispossessed Group With Varying Degrees Of Literary Talent. Caught Up In A Number Of Bizarre Events, Benson Nevertheless Finds His Own Imagination Sparked Only By An Encounter With Two Old Army Colleagues: Thompson Now A Down-and-out Victim Of An Uncaring Society, And Slater, Its Prototype Success Story.