Haylock was born into a comfortably-off family (his father was a GP) in Bournemouth in 1918. He was educated at Aldenham School, in France and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. His university career was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, though resumed, not entirely happily, after the cessation of hostilities. During the war he served as a liaison officer with the Greek army and the Belgium Colonial Forces in the Middle East - serving in Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Greece. Thereafter he remained contentedly out of Britain for much of his life. After leaving Cambridge, John Haylock took a teaching post in Iraq, working in Baghdad between 1948 and 1956. Whilst there he co-wrote with a fellow expatriate, Desmond Stewart, New Babylon: a portrait of Iraq (1956), a fascinating account which shows his interest in and love for a country about to undergo immense political and social change. From Baghdad, Haylock moved to Japan, teaching at Wasada University, Tokyo (1958-60 and 1962-63), and, later, as Visiting Professor of English Literature, at Rikkyo University, Tokyo (1975-85). His years in the Middle East and Orient inspired a series of novels which began with See You Again (1963) and It's All Your Fault (1964). Although he didn't publish another novel for 16 years, he did translate two books by the French writer Philippe Jullian: Robert de Montesquiou: a fin-de-siècle prince (with Francis King, 1967) and Flight into Egypt: a fantasy (1970). Haylock's third novel, One Hot Summer in Kyoto, eventually appeared in 1980, but it wasn't until he had settled into happy retirement, spreading his year between Brighton, Tokyo and the Thai resort Chiang Mai, that he began to write and publish more consistently. A Touch of the Orient (1990), Uneasy Relations (1993), Doubtful Partners (1998), Body of Contention (1999), Loose Connections (2004, though the book's printing history erroneously gives 2003 as the date of first publication) and his final...