203:, and of being captured by Japanese soldiers. He at last shamefacedly admits to Milne that under interrogation and threat of torture he had divulged sensitive military information to the enemy. Lucian arrives to his next appointment elated and feels himself completely cured, having finally got his guilty secret off his chest. Milne, however, feels there is something still deeper in Lucian's history that needs to come out. Although Milne vaguely feels that therapy should continue there and then, he has a headache and he lets Lucian go, agreeing to continue in a few days time.
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profession. He starts to destroy his records, telling her that he wants to give up psycho-therapy and to come back to her. At that moment, Charlie Oakes arrives for an appointment. Milne recognises that he does after all have a certain talent for dealing with people's problems, and that he can help his bed-wetting patient. Patricia remarks "Well? What's wrong with that?"
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noted that this novel, the one most often identified with
Balchin's name, was a huge success, selling 54,000 in hardback alone with a further 250,000 copies in paperback by 1953. James considered the book's overriding sense to be one of fatalistic resignation. It addresses, he said, the post-war lack
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While Milne is again attempting to seduce
Barbara, Patricia phones to report that the police want to speak to him. Lucian has shot his wife four times, and gone on the run. After speaking to the dying Molly in hospital, Milne returns home to find Lucian there, talking to Patricia. Lucian escapes, and
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is an elderly doctor with a fearsome reputation for finding somebody to blame. He takes a dim view of unqualified therapists, and interprets Milne's candid admission of uncertainty as tantamount to an acknowledgement that he was out of his depth. Only a last-minute intervention by Dr James
Garsten,
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Milne is unhappy in his home life, too. He has tired of his wife
Patricia and is ready to seek sexual excitement elsewhere. The couple are on the verge of separation, but in spite of his professional expertise Milne is unable to solve his own problems. Family friends Peter and Barbara Edge come for
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Milne is angry, both with himself for having letting Lucian go, and with
Garsten for using his position as a doctor to pander to the coroner's prejudices, even though he himself benefitted. He tells Patricia that he is fed up with being 'sucked dry' by his patients and patronised by the medical
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fighter pilot. He has already made two attempts to murder his wife, Molly, and she has persuaded him to accept treatment, but as Lucian hates and fears doctors he consents only on the basis that he will never have to see one. Milne is unsure whether he will be able to help a patient with
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who divides his time between private practice and a charitable clinic run by the philanthropist Dr Norris Pile, where treatment is provided free to poor patients. He is one of the lay therapists on the staff, not being a
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is later spotted on the high ledge of an office building. Milne climbs a fireman's ladder in an effort to talk his patient down, but as he reaches the top Lucian shoots himself.
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called the book "psychiatry as intelligent as it has been practised in print", but "perhaps a little too civilized for the wider public.
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Dr Pile is offered a substantial grant to support the clinic on condition that he removes from its staff medically unqualified '
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in which he sets out several examples of men that have been their own executioners by committing suicide. Donne comments,
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dinner, and Peter quietly asks Milne whether he would take
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one of Milne's medically-qualified colleagues at the clinic, averts a highly critical coroner's report.
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as a psychologist, going on to become deputy scientific adviser to the army council. At the end of the
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532:The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film
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460:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
254:Adam Lucian, Milne's patient and war veteran
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454:Rowland, Peter. "Balchin, Nigel Marlin".
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567:British novels adapted into films
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412:"British Library Item details"
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516:(Text of review published in
251:Peter Edge, Barbara's husband
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443:. London: Collins. Epigraph.
582:Novels about psychoanalysis
577:William Collins, Sons books
325:Darkness Falls from the Air
128:Darkness Falls from the Air
16:1945 novel by Nigel Balchin
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279:is a short quotation from
257:Molly Lucian, Adam's wife
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310:. In 1941 he joined the
308:J. S. Rowntree & Son
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156:Felix Milne is a London
121:by the English novelist
117:is a 1945 psychological
562:British thriller novels
557:Novels by Nigel Balchin
195:Under the influence of
146:1960 Australian TV play
482:"Mine Own Executioner"
467:10.1093/ref:odnb/62402
302:Balchin was himself a
192:', but agrees to try.
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22:Mine Own Executioner
572:Novels set in London
530:Goble, Alan (1999).
441:Mine Own Executioner
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239:Felix Milne, London
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520:April 1974
393:References
312:War Office
298:Background
178:over sexed
342:In 1946,
286:Devotions
142:1947 film
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439:(1945).
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