Edward Morgan (EM) Forster achieved fame as a novelist, writer of a series of books that looked at the mores of the English. Morgan (as he was known) had a more complex private life. Morgan was born and brought up in comfortable circumstances, well-educated and flirting with writing whilst not gainfully employed and living with his mother. He took on the role of a tutor to young Indian man, in England for education, and his life came into focus. Morgan falls in love and confronts his sexuality, despite rejection he forms a close friendship that spans many years. Morgan spends the war in Alexandria and begins his first real affair with a local man but his writing is on hold. His subsequent visits to India shape his writing and his relationships.

It is difficult to place this book, it is not a pure biography but neither is it fiction, much of the dialogue is taken from diaries and contemporaneous accounts but much is also imagined. In fact this book reads like a novel and is much the better for it. Galgut is an accomplished writer and the story is believable for anyone who doesn't know the life and works of E M Forster.