CAPOTE, TRUMAN

The tranquil life Truman Capote led in the quiet enclave known as Brooklyn Heights stood in sharp contrast to the glittering social scene he adored on the other side of the bridge. Yet for a few contented years in the Fifties and Sixties, he happily made his home in the yellow brick house on leafy Willow Street. Here, in a series of deft and typically stylish character sketches, a neighbourhood's denizens spring to life, including the decade's most celebrated Russian spy; a globe-trotting antiquarian and his gnomic Panamanian wife; and - in a hilarious, biting centrepiece that might almost be a scene from Breakfast at Tiffany's - a cat-rescuing dowager with a pointed social agenda. Beloved by literary figures from Walt Whitman to Thomas Wolfe, Brooklyn cast its spell over Capote, too. A House on the Heights is his satisfying meander, both whimsical and farcical, through a unique time and place still recognizable today.

Estimated despatch 14-20 days after ordering.