Beauty and Nick

The protagonist is the young boy, Nick, and the story is told through his eyes, from toddler to adulthood. 'Beauty' is his name for his mother who is a stage actress.

As a young child Nick held his mother up as a beautiful saint and could tolerate no bad word being said about her. But her life was not all good. Eventually Nick's father and mother divorce, Nick's father is given custody and they move from London to a village on the coast.

He has a happy childhood with his new neighbors and friends but always at the back of his mind is his longing for his mother. So when he grows up and moves to London he searches for her until he finds her.

But not all things that are lost are worth finding, and in discovering this he almost loses everything worth having.

At the crux of this novel is the love between father and son. And how women, the wrong type, can ruin a man.