National Network for Equitable Library Service

A Treasonable Growth was Ronald Blythe's first book and only novel. Set in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, shortly before the Second World War, Blythe described it as his "Forsterian novel" and even admitted to walking with E. M. Forster while working on it, though he never mentioned it to him. Freda Bellingham, founder of Copdock School, ensnares the unsuspecting Richard Brand to save her failing foundation. At twenty-four, Richard is a perilous mix of gauche, good, and uncommitted, quickly finding himself drawn into the tangled world of Copdock School. Meanwhile, British exiles in Italy are planning to return home as war looms. Among them is Sir Paul Abott, Freda's celebrated novelist nephew, who leaves his Sicilian villa for Suffolk and seeks new blood—someone "more than a typist and less than a friend." Fleeing Freda and Paul, Richard joins forces with Mary Crawford, a marriage dreamer, but lovers should first be strangers, unburdened by close knowledge of each other. Just as the aged hunters of these confused lovers should move in for the kill, their self-interest yields to the greater madness that will soon unravel their world.