
Saturday February 15 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man
- a successful neurosurgeon the devoted husband of Rosalind & proud father of two grown-up children. Unusually he wakes before dawn drawn to the window of his bedroom & filled with a growing unease. What troubles him as he looks out at the night sky is the state of the world
- the impending war against Iraq a gathering pessimism since 9/11 & a fear that his city & his happy family life are under threat. Later Perowne makes his way to his weekly squash game through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors. A minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter a fidgety aggressive young man on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him. Towards the end of a day rich in incident & filled with Perowne's celebrations of life's pleasures his family gathers for a reunion. But with the sudden appearance of Baxter Perowne's earlier fears seem about to be realised.