An infinity of little hours : five young men and thier trial of faith in the western world's most austere monastic order

This is a unique and compelling look into the hidden world of the Carthusians - the western world's most ascetic monastic order.

In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster in West Sussex, the largest centre of the Carthusians - the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world.

This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behaviour and lifestyle since its foundations in 1084. "An Infinity of Little Hours" is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now.

It is also a drama of the men's struggle as they avoid the 1960s - the decade of hedonism, music, fashion and amorality - and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making.

After five years each must face a choice: to make "solemn profession" and never leave Parkminster; or to turn his back on his life's ambition to find God in solitude.

A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material, to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, which recounts a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five succeeded in their quest - and which did not.