Tim, living in Amsterdam and enduring a hard winter, finds he is suddenly pursued by two very different men. Both come out of the criminal and hard-edged margins of Amsterdam that Tim has for so many years frequented. Klaus is a German who sells death to those willing to pay for it. Radek is Polish, 19 years old, selling his innocence but holding out for love. In The Vicious Age, John Roman Baker explores, through the eyes of his protagonist Tim, the painful realities of life and of ageing in a city that has become more materialistic and vicious in its constant need to renew itself. Drugs and an ever-deepening cycle of sexual dependency provide temporary relief from this, but as his encounters leave him increasingly exposed to danger and violence, Tim knows he must break free and face the future without illusions, but not necessarily alone. John Roman Baker is a British poet, playwright and novelist who has lived and worked mainly in Paris, Amsterdam and Brighton.