Fair Used. In 1954, Evelyn Waugh, reacting against a bitterly cold winter, and suffering from bouts of rheumatism and insomnia and forgetfulness, set off alone on a sea voyage to Ceylon. On his return to England, he confided to a friend, "I haven"t seen you for a long time, but then I"ve seen so few people because-did you know? -I went mad. " By February 1956 he felt strong enough to describe in detail what happened during the voyage. The result was a short novel, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. In this dramatisation Ronald Harwood skilfully recreates the ordeal of a man living through a nightmare of intrigue and conspiracy, beset by hallucinations and voices in the air.