Rancid Pansies - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571238467 ISBN 13: 9780571238460

Synopsis

The hero of this black farce of a book is Gerald Samper, a ghostwriter to unbearable sports celebrities and rock stars, whose dream is to write the libretto of an opera. After an unsuccessful sojourn in Suffolk that ends in the accidental death of an ancient aristocrat, Gerry returns to Tuscany to the site of his collapsed house, now a place of pilgrimage after the strange apparition of a deceased English princess with great legs. A sinister estate agent smells a chance to make serious money, and Gerry is persuaded to go along with the scam in return for certain favours. Meanwhile, Gerry is motivated to collaborate on an opera about the life of Princess Diana, the not-quite-saint who has inspired such strange devotion. The premiere will be the high point of his life, though not quite in the way he imagines...

About this title

Product Description

Gerald Samper is not a lucky man. Ghost writer of terrible celebrity memoirs and lethally bad cook, he now watches as his beloved house falls off a hill in Tuscany. But he and his guests have been saved from certain death by an apparition - in the form of a certain deceased English princess with great legs. Or, at least, that's how the money-spinning rumour has it...And so begins a farcical comedy of eccentric Diana pilgrims, dead dinner guests, bad opera and Gerry's speciality field-mouse vol-au-vents. Every bit as outrageous as Cooking with Fernet Branca, James Hamilton-Paterson's latest novel is not for anyone who takes royalty (or, indeed, anything else) too seriously.

Review

aImagine a British John Waters crossed with David Sedaris.a
a"The New York Times Book Review"
a["Cooking with Fernet Branca"] is one of the best books Iave read for a long time.a
a"The Wall Street Journal"
aProvokes the sort of indecorous involuntary laughter that has more in common with sneezing than chuckling.a
a"The New York Times"
aHamilton-Paterson quickly seduces the reader with perfectly captured tone and timing.a
a"The New Yorker"
aHamilton-Paterson, one of our finest prose stylists, is a national treasure; and Amazing Disgrace is a gorgeous plum pudding of a novel.a
a"The Spectator"
aThere is so much pleasure to be had along the way from Hamilton-Patersonas delight in language and wicked way with unreliable narrators.a
a"Times Literary Supplement"

Imagine a British John Waters crossed with David Sedaris.
"The New York Times Book Review"
["Cooking with Fernet Branca"] is one of the best books I ve read for a long time.
"The Wall Street Journal"
Provokes the sort of indecorous involuntary laughter that has more in common with sneezing than chuckling.
"The New York Times"
Hamilton-Paterson quickly seduces the reader with perfectly captured tone and timing.
"The New Yorker"
Hamilton-Paterson, one of our finest prose stylists, is a national treasure; and Amazing Disgrace is a gorgeous plum pudding of a novel.
"The Spectator"
There is so much pleasure to be had along the way from Hamilton-Paterson s delight in language and wicked way with unreliable narrators.
"Times Literary Supplement"

?Imagine a British John Waters crossed with David Sedaris.?
?"The New York Times Book Review"

?["Cooking with Fernet Branca"] is one of the best books I?ve read for a long time.?
?"The Wall Street Journal"

?Provokes the sort of indecorous involuntary laughter that has more in common with sneezing than chuckling.?
?"The New York Times"

?Hamilton-Paterson quickly seduces the reader with perfectly captured tone and timing.?
?"The New Yorker"

?Hamilton-Paterson, one of our finest prose stylists, is a national treasure; and Amazing Disgrace is a gorgeous plum pudding of a novel.?
?"The Spectator"

?There is so much pleasure to be had along the way from Hamilton-Paterson's delight in language and wicked way with unreliable narrators.?
?"Times Literary Supplement"

About this edition

• ISBN 10: 0571238467
• ISBN 13: 9780571238460
• Binding: Paperback