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In David Lodge's last novel, Thinks... the novelist Henry James was invisibly present in quotation and allusion. In Author, Author he is centre stage, sometimes literally. The story begins in December 1915, with the dying author surrounded by his relatives and servants, most of whom have private anxieties of their own, then loops back to the 1880s, to chart the course of Henry's 'middle years', focusing particularly on his friendship with the genial Punch artist and illustrator, George Du Maurier, and his intimate but chaste relationship with the American writer Constance Fenimore Woolson. By the end of the decade Henry is seriously worried by the failure of his books to 'sell', and decides to try and achieve fame and fortune as a playwright, at the same time that George Du Maurier, whose sight is failing, diversifies into writing novels.The consequences, for both men, are surprising, ironic, comic and tragic by turns, reaching a climax in the years 1894-5. As Du Maurier's Trilby, to the bewilderment of its author himself, becomes the bestseller of the century, Henry anxiously awaits the first night of his make-or-break play, Guy Domville... Thronged with vividly drawn characters, some of them with famous names, others recovered from obscurity, Author, Author presents a fascinating panorama of literary and theatrical life in late Victorian England, which in many ways foreshadowed today's cultural mix of art, commerce and publicity. But it is essentially a novel about authorship - about the obsessions, hopes, dreams, triumphs and disappointments, of those who live by the pen - with, at its centre, a [epithet] characterisation of one writer, rendered with [epithet] empathy.

Human consciousness, long the province of literature, has lately come in for a remapping - even rediscovery - by the natural sciences, driven by developments in Artificial Intelligence, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. But as the richest record we have of human consciousness, literature David Lodge suggests, may offer a kind of knowledge about this phenomenon that is complementary, not opposed, to scientific knowledge. Writing with characteristic wit and brio, and employing the insight and acumen of a skilled novelist and critic, Lodge here explores the representation of human consciousness in fiction (mainly English and American) in the light of recent investigations in cognitive science, neuroscience, and related disciplines. How, Lodge asks, does the novel represent consciousness? And how has this changed over time? In a series of interconnected essays, he pursues this question down various paths: how does the novel's method compare with that of other creative media such as film? How does the consciousness (and unconsciousness) of the creative writer do its work? And how can criticism infer the nature of this process through formal analysis?

When the university merged his Department of Linguistics with English, Professor Desmond Bates took early retirement, but he is not enjoying it. He misses the purposeful routine of the academic year, and has lost his appetite for research. His wife Winifred's late-flowering career goes from strength to strength, reducing his role to that of escort and househusband, while the rejuvenation of her appearance makes him uneasily conscious of the age gap between them. The monotony of his days is relieved only by wearisome journeys to London to check on the welfare of his 89-year-old father, an ex dance musician who stubbornly refuses to move from the house he is patently unable to live in with safety. But these discontents are nothing compared to the affliction of hearing loss, which is a constant source of domestic friction and social embarrassment. In the popular imagination, he observes, deafness is comic, as blindness is tragic, but for the deaf person himself it is no joke. It is through his deafness that Desmond inadvertently gets involved with a young woman whose wayward and unpredictable behavior threatens to destabilize his life completely.

Dr Robyn Penrose is a lecturer in English at Rummidge University. Vic Wilcox is the Managing Director of Pringle and Sons, a local industrial engineering firm. The two meet when Robyn is told by her Head of Department to ‘shadow’ Vic as part of Industry Year. Though initially hostile to each other – after all, what could they possibly have in common? – they gradually come to understand each other's point of view.

Management Teaching use: Set in a British industrial town there are several themes which can be isolated. One of these is that of maintaining profit margins in a contracting manufacturing industry, given that costs have to be continuously monitored and kept to a minimum, staffing is expensive and machinery needs updating to maintain a competitive edge. Thus the text offers an excellent case study in what seems to be an insoluble problem. In Human Resource Management terms, trade unionism, racism and motivational techniques also figure.

The Palladium, Brickley, London is the haunting setting for this novel. Here is a seedy Saturday-night venue which attracts people searching for something new in their lives. The novel is also a portrait of a traditional Catholic family with a daughter who has attracted the attentions of their undergraduate lodger.

Management Teaching use: This text addresses a central tenet in marketing: the role of the experience in the consumer's choice of a product. In this instance the experience central to the consumer is the escapism inherent in the 'film' (a concept which is easily transferable to celebrity endorsement and the aspirational aspects of product branding). However, it also points out that each consumer brings their own needs to the service provider (the cinema) as one member of the audience is seeking a religious film is there for explicit sexual content and other members of the audience are using the cinema as a rendezvous. Marketing to such a diverse audience might be discussed. Also interesting are the changes the building goes through. The question of diversification and adaptation of the product is an interesting one.