'Elizabeth Harrower is not unknown in Australian literary circles. Several published short stories and two novels (The Long Prospect and The Watchtower) have earned her a reasonable amount of critical attention in the past two decades. Her two other published novels, Down In The City and The Catherine Wheel, have not fared so well. Down In The City was Harrower's first novel (1957) and provides a unique insight into the life of Sydney in the post-World War II years while also highlighting the author's interest in the human psyche and manipulation of the mind. However, the novel has been all but ignored in recent years.' (Publication abstract)