Joyce Cary wrote two trilogies, or triptychs as he later preferred to call them. The first comprises: Herself Surprised, To Be a Pilgrim and The Horse's Mouth. The Horse's Mouth is a portrait of an artistic temperament. Its principal character, Gulley Jimson, is an impoverished painter who bothers little about the customary obligations and decencies. But although he is a bad citizen he is a good artist, so wholly preoccupied with his art that he is willing to endure any privation for its sake. Gulley Jimson, however is no self-conscious martyr. He is so wholly allergic to conventional values as to find a sardonic delight in flouting them, and the only morality he practises is the devotion he gives to painting.

'Mr Joyce Cary is an important and exciting writer; there's no doubt about that. To use Tennyson's phrase, he is a Lord of Language ... if you like rich writing full of gusto and accurate original character drawing, you will get it from The Horse's Mouth.' John Betjeman, Daily Herald.

The cover shows a detail from 'Desire' by Stanley Spencer, in the collection of Lady Watson.