It was said of Henry (1905-73) that he pursued trivial to the point where his subject-matter disappeared and he stopped writing. It is a clever but inaccurate observation. Party Going (1939) is at. once a viciously perceptive expose of the phoney charm and multiple deceptions perpetrated by a group of pampered, spoilt young things trapped by a freak fog at a railway station en route to a house party in. France, and a prophetic comment on the coming World War. Sharply observed and elegantly written, Party Going is the work of a master of dialogue.
