Title: The serpent's tooth
First published: 1956
Description: Tom Bacchus had been family doctor to the village of Loddon for a good many years when his only son, John, decided to throw up his medical studies and devote himself to literature.  To his father the decision was a great blow, for he had looked forward to John's help in his own practice, which was now becoming a burden.  The blow was not lessened by the fact that his son's literary aspirations were directed to a pseudo-intellectualism exemplified by the writings of one Frank Maddocks, who ran his own literary journal, the <i>Naturalist Review</i>, and had recently taken up residence, in bohemian style, near the village of Loddon.  After meeting Maddocks, John soon became an adoring disciple in spite of his father's efforts to steer him clear of a degrading and and soul-destroying influence.<p>This novel, one of the last written by Warwick Deeping before his death, tells the story of the unconventional life into which John was led and of his eventual disillusionment.<p>(A foreword to the 1956 Cassell edition.)