 Settling in London, he enjoys early success as a writer with "The Mind's Imaginings", a critically successful biography of Shelley; "The Girl Factory", a salacious novel about prostitutes (which is poorly reviewed but sells well); and "Les Cosmopolites", a respectable book on some obscure French poets.Mountstuart's mother loses the family wealth in the Wall Street Crash.He embarks on a series of amorous encounters