ABSTRACT
Robert Edric has written superb, intelligent novels set in the Belgian Congo at the height of exploitative imperialism, the Arctic wastes in the era of heroic European exploration and P. T. Barnum's American Museum at the time of the American Civil War. He is the pseudonym of Gary Edric Armitage. His first novel, Winter Garden, was published in 1985 under a pseudonym which made use of his own unusual Anglo-Saxon-sounding middle name. In his novel Edric, unlike many other modern writers who look back to the nineteenth century, is uninterested in scoring easy points by revealing feet of clay or highlighting hypocrisies with a knowing irony. In Desolate Heaven reflects the continuing fascination many contemporary novelists feel for the physical and emotional devastation wrought by the First World War but, unlike Sebastian Faulks or Pat Barker, Edric makes no attempt to tackle battles and bloodshed directly. His story is set in a Swiss mountain resort in 1919.
