LP Hartley's moving exploration of a young boy's loss of innocence The Go-Between is edited with an introduction & notes by Douglas Brooks-Davies in Penguin Modern Classics' The past is a foreign country they do things differently there' When one long hot summer young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall he begins to act as a messenger between Ted the farmer & Marian the beautiful young woman up at the hall He becomes drawn deeper & deeper into their dangerous game of deceit & desire until his role brings him to a shocking & premature revelation The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world The Go-Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey Cambridgeshire & educated at Harrow & Balliol College Oxford For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the Spectator & Saturday Review His first book Night Fears (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of Eustace & Hilda (1947) which won the James Tait Black prize that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author His other novels include The Go-Between (1953) which was adapted into an internationally-successful film starring Julie Christie & Alan Bates & The Hireling (1957) the film version of which won the Palme d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival If you enjoyed The Go-Between you might like Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave also available in Penguin Modern Classics' Magical & disturbing' Independent ' On a first reading it is a beautifully wrought description of a small boy's loss of innocence long ago But visited a second time the knowledge of approaching unavoidable tragedy makes it far more poignant & painful' Express