by Ronald Firbank
Adapted for broadcasting and produced by Douglas Cleverdon
Caprice was published during the first world war; but the world it reflects is that of the late Edwardian era, seen through the distorting mirror of Ronald Firbank's fantastic imagination. As a novelist, Firbank created a style of writing that remains unique. ' Just as in the autumn,' wrote Sir Osbert Sitwell, ' the silver cobwebs lightly cover the trees with a fine mist of impalpable beauty, so a similar highlv stylised but intangible loveliness hung over every page, while wit ran in, round, and underneath each word.'