Life Cycle is a series of short stories taking is from birth to death in stages. It offers a series of penetrating improvisations on the lives of awide range of contemporary characters, from bankers, priests and soldiers, to journalists and school children. Its diverse worlds range from the comedy ofboardrooms, to schools, from hospitals to sea-storms, from television toparliament, from the paintings of Venice to a vision of purgatory, addressingin its progress a range of deeply challenging ethical, philosophical and personaldilemmas.