A Cab at the Door

A Cab at the Door, originally published in 1968, recalls his childhood in turn-of-the-century and World War I London with the urbane subtlety and wry humor that have marked his other works. For the wild and eccentric Pritchett family, life is a series of cabs waiting at the door to transport them to a succession of ten-bob-a-week lodgings, in their flight from creditors and the financial disasters of their father. It also captures the texture and color of the working class side of Edwardian England. Midnight Oil (which Wilfrid Sheed called a 'little Rolls Royce of a book' when it came out in 1972) opens in 1921: with L20 in his pocket, Pritchett arrives in Paris to commence a literary career. Gradually, his creative sensibilities emerge as he travels as a reporter to Ireland, Spain, and America. Midnight Oil provides an intimate and precise record of a writer's discovery of himself and his art.