Thanks Zed, I'd forgotten all about Victor Canning. That was a great read, one of his best as I recall, along with The House of the Seven Flies, The Dragon Tree ... oh, so many, and then of course - completely different - his Mr Finchley books. Very 'grown-up' writing. I'm sure I have most of them in the loft (along with about 2000 others - maybe my New Year resolution should be to do something about all those books, but what? ).

Ed: VC also wrote under the name Alan Gould, by the way.