Divided into two parts, the first of which is autobiographical and the second biographical, this compilation of literary sketches strives to outline John O'Loughlin's development as a writer and the influences, both fictional and philosophical, which shaped him over the years leading up to 1982. The first part, containing subjects ranging from sex and politics to health and writers, is slightly Nietzschean in its speculative approach to autobiography, whilst the second and more voluminous part, which deals with the estimable likes of John Cowper Powys, D.H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Hermann Hesse, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Koestler, Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller, and George Orwell, is intended to provide a biographical summary and fairly blunt appraisal of authors whose works were to inspire him during his formative years as a writer. It is as though they were the beings whom he was eventually destined to become or, rather, that he became being - and hence an original writer in his own right - via them. Finally there is an appendix comprised of an introduction to and lists of reading material that John O'Loughlin borrowed from his local library (Hornsey Central) over a twelve-year period from 1977-89, which should intrigue those interested to discover how a self-taught and even self-made writer can fare with regard to the acquirement of a literary culture that owes little or nothing to school or college, and somewhat transcends the restricted perimeters of high-school qualifications.