Set in Edwardian London, this is the absorbing story of the life-long
conflict between the love and ambitions of unrepentant sinner John
Marco.
Norman Richard Collins was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, on
October 3, 1907. By the time he was nine years old, at the William Ellis
School in Hampstead, he displayed a talent for both writing and
publishing. In January 1933, when he was 25, he became assistant
managing director in the publishing house run by Victor Gollancz. In
1941 Collins was forced to move to the BBC due to increasingly poor
relationship with Gollancz, who resented Collins talent and saw him as a
rival.
Collins wrote fourteen novels and one work of non-fiction in his
lifetime, most of which were popular successes, published begrudgingly
by Gollancz. Collins also became well known for his innovative
programming at the British Broadcasting Corporation during the late
1940s, and later for advocating and leading the movement toward
commercial television broadcasting in Great Britain.
An unmistakable mark of Collins power of application and creative energy
was that he continued to write fiction throughout such a very busy
working life. Although never a full-time writer he was a fluent and
prolific author with 16 titles and two plays to his credit between 1934
and 1981. An autographed edition of twelve of his novels was published
during the 1960s.
