The Rack

The Rack is not an easy read, particularly now, but it is a vital one, a novel of big ideas with a febrile, twisted sentimentality at its heart. It asks us to consider what makes life worth living, and what, in the end, we would be prepared to die for – Alex Preston * Observer *
Very moving… A powerful love story – Sebastian Faulks
There are certain books we call great for want of a better term, that rise like monuments above the cemeteries of literature: Clarissa, Great Expectations, Ulysses. The Rack to my mind is one of this company – Graham Greene
Quite possibly a masterpiece * Irish Times *
A work of sombre power, of soaring comedy * Sunday Times *
Book of the year if there ever was one – V. S. Pritchett * New Statesman *

A. E. Ellis was the pseudonym used by British novelist and playwright Derek Lindsay, who was born in 1920. After serving as a captain in the Second World War, he returned to England to study at the University of Oxford. After his diagnosis of tuberculosis, Lindsay was treated for some years at a sanatorium in the French Alps, one of the last to undergo this type of therapy. His experiences there were to form a backdrop for his first and only novel, The Rack, which was published in 1958. The novel was met with high critical acclaim, with The Irish Times describing it as “quite possibly a masterpiece”. Many fellow authors also praised the work, with Graham Greene writing- “there are certain books we call great for want of a better term, that rise like monuments above the cemeteries of literature- Clarissa Harlowe, Great Expectations, Ulysses. The Rack to my mind is one of this company.” Lindsay never published another novel, though he did pen two plays, Grand Manouevres (1974) and Seagull Rising (1977).

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