Blacksmith Lane. (Original writing)

The thesis contains approximately two-thirds of a novel-in-progress, provisionally entitled Blacksmith Lane. The principal action covers six months in the life of young Jonathan Meade, who shares a maisonette in North London with three others. Drifting in a post-university vacuum, he works merely to pay the rent. The novel focuses on four roughly simultaneous events in Jon's life: the discovery of a damp problem in his room; an infatuation with one of his housemates; the arrival in London of an old college friend; and the realisation that his landlord does not own the property and that the true owner wants the tenants out. By the novel's end, these developments will help to push Jon out of his limbo into a tentative embrace of adult aspirations and responsibilities. However, his progress is attended by conflicts and ambiguities that are never quite resolved; life proves endlessly slippery and multi-faceted.