title: Bo Peep
author: Romano, Nicholas
description: What makes Claude Hewson travel from a secluded Oxbridge quad and the comfort of a lassie in a Highland bothie to the past grandeur of a country in turmoil? And why does the accomplished Mary Trevellyn come on the scene? Dramatic events take place turn and turn about: shady goings-on and a magic moment in a back street of Naples, bloodshed and intrigue in Rome but also a promise of romance; a frantic chase through Florence, Milan and as far as the Lakes; light and shade all over Venice in peril, the wanderer's tragic personal loss, and his encounter with a Stranger conducive to a Faustian compact with a difference. Then, the appearance of a dark femme fatale and the fulfilment of a primal desire; an eleventh-hour stand and a major crisis later in life; finally, the return of a primordial Family and resolution.AH Clough's charmingly poetical portrayal of a devastating inner and outer conflict has prompted NM Romano's adaptation as an attempt to do it justice with an eye to fulfilling the expectations of the general reader. 'But westward, look, the land is bright,' says one line in the source and is it a wonder Winston Churchill was intrigued by it?