The Adamsons' public image, mediated through their books and films, was one of loving co-operation in a second Eden. The reality, as revealed in this book, was much more interesting and much more volatile. Drawing on diaries, letters, unpublished drafts, the reminiscences of those who knew the Adamsons well, and not least on his own experience as an editor of the Adamsons' books for more than 30 years, Adrian House reveals the intense, complicated, passionate, exhilarating and exasperating individuals behind the myth the world was happy to accept.