Book excerpt: Mr. Alfred is an elderly school teacher dogged by a sense of failure. The rejection of his poetry, his nightly escape to the pub--all contribute to his malaise. Perhaps most harrowing is his innocent but obsessive love for Rose, one of his pupils. This 'affair' is maliciously reported and he is torn from his familiar job and transferred to an even rougher school. Against a nightmarish background of gang warfare and public desecration the story reaches a frightening climax.....