A circle of elderly people in 1950s London are regularly phoned by a stranger who says only 'Remember you must die' before hanging up. There is Charmian, whose popular novels are undergoing a resurgence of public interest. There is her husband, Godfrey Colston, the brewery magnate, now retired, whose adulteries never seem to go further than a fugitive glimpse of certain ladies' stockings and garter clip. There is Percy Mannering, the slobbering old poet and grandfather of 23 year old Olive Mannering, one of Godfrey's "whores." There is Eric Colston, the son, a loser, who may be based on Spark's own son Robin. There is Alec Warner who keeps up a torrent of note-taking and record-keeping of the circle's activities to no apparent end. There is the late libidinous Lisa Brooke whose fortune might go to any number of individuals. There is retired Inspector Mortimer with the bad heart and philosophical disposition who views the so-called hoax calls as coming from "Death himself." There is the avaricious old servant Mrs. Pettigrew who is blackmailing Godfrey with his old adulteries. This dark comedy is a wonder of economy and judicious patterning. It was published in 1959 and has aged remarkably well. One might say it's ageless, as all true classics are. It can at times be enormously laugh out loud funny. The writing is always impressive.