The eighth novel in C. P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers sequence sees a return to the Cambridge college of The Masters, where an apparent miscarriage of justice once again ranges the fellows against one another. The unpopular Dr Donald Howard is dismissed for academic fraud, much to the relief of the other dons, who find little to like in either his research or his far-left political views. But when doubt creeps into the evidence the fellows are sharply divided into two camps, with Lewis Eliot – through whose eyes we watch the events unfold – ranged firmly on the side of justice in this academic Affaire Dreyfus. Masterfully crafted and full of suspense, The Affair is perhaps the most gripping novel in the sequence and became a successful West End play. A meticulous study of the public issues and private problems of post-war Britain, C. P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers sequence is a towering achievement that stands alongside Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time as one of the great romans-fleuves of the twentieth century.