My Idea of Fun: A Cautionary Tale. This item is unavailable.My Idea of Fun: A Cautionary Tale

The story of a devilishly clever international financier/marketing wizard and his young apprentice, My Idea of Fun is both a frighteningly dark subterranean exploration of capitalism run rampant and a wickedly sharp, technically acute display of linguistic pyrotechnics that glows with pure white-hot brilliance.

Ian Wharton is a very ordinary young man until he is taken under the wing of a gentleman known variously as Mr. Broadhurst, Samuel Northcliff, and finally and conclusively simply as the Fat Controller, Loud-mouthed, impeccably tailored, a fount of bombastic erudition, the Fat Controller initiates Ian into the dark secrets of his arts -- of marketing, money, and the human psyche -- and takes Ian, and the reader, on a wild voyage around the edges of reality.

'This is a brilliant first novel, obscene, funny, opulently written, and, of course, agonisingly moral' (Observer)

'No one else I can think of writes about contemporary Britain with such elan, energy and witty intelligence. Rejoice' (Nicholas Lezard, Guardian)

'Written with diabolical gusto and skill' (Evening Standard)

'Vastly entertaining' (The Times)