A novel full of high comedy and suspense of Stanley Pitts, a filing clerk in the Admiralty, a small man in stature, ambition and achievement, devoted to his hobby of photography and whose latest failure with the Civil Service Selection Board did not matter to him. However, it mattered to his wife, Beryl, a social climber, mistress of their house, with its garden gnomes, wall to wall carpet and its fridge filled with Cornish pasties.

When Stanley's photographic study of 'Hoarfrost on Wimbledon Common' wins the Admiralty Division Photographic Competition on the eve of his expected promotion, never has the future looked brighter. So how then did he end up in the dock of No. 1 Court at the Old Bailey? Why was the sentence such a savage one? What part did Mr. Cheevers, crime reporter of the Sunday Sun, play in all this?