- To the Dark Tower (1946) novel
- Never Again (1948) novel
- An Air That Kills (1948) novel
- The Dividing Stream (1951) novel, 1952 Somerset Maugham Award
- Rod of Incantation (1952) poems
- The Dark Glasses (1954) novel
- The Firewalkers: a Memoir (1956) as Frank Caudwell
- The Man on the Rock (1957) novel
- The Widow (1957) novel
- The Custom House (1961) novel
- The Japanese Umbrella and Other Stories (1964) short stories
- The Last Pleasure Gardens (1965)
- The Waves Behind the Boat (1967) novel
- Robert de Montesquiou by Philippe Julian (1967) translator with John Haylock
- The Brighton Belle and other stories (1968)
- The Domestic Animal (1970) novel
- Flights (1973)
- A Game of Patience (1974)
- The Needle (1975)
- E.M. Forster and his World (1978) A biography of the author of A Passage to India and Howards End
- Act of Darkness (1983)
- Voices in an Empty Room (1984)
- Visiting Cards (1990)
- Punishments (1989)
- The Ant Colony (1992)
- Yesterday Came Suddenly (1993) autobiography
'A Hand at the Shutter' (1996)
- The Nick of Time (2002) (novel)
- The Sunlight on the Garden (2006) (short stories)
- With My Little Eye (2007) (novel)