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Book Description
The hilarious new farcical comedy featuring the anti-hero of the wonderful Cooking with Fernet Branca.
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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is not easy to write comic fiction. James Hamilton-Paterson is a master. Once again Gerald Samper provides us with smiles, sniggers, and outright pleasure-laughs. It is beautifuly written situation comedy with astute observation. I find myself reading some of his, apparently, more outrageous reflections on life, and then thinking with a smile and a nod, Yup! He's right. I would strongly advise any one thnking of reading this to read the first two books, "Cooking with Fernet Branca",and "Amazing Disgrace" first. Happy Reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book: Part three of the Samper Saga, dealing with the life and times of Gerald Samper, aesthete, ghostwriter to the terminally stupid, and now embarked upon writing... opera. After the dramatic denouement of part II and a gastronomic faux-pas Gerald returns to Tuscany and searches for a new home and a new occupation. Both projects are embarked upon with gusto and problems, interspersed with anagrams, ideas for fantastic dishes and bitchy asides on many a subject. The eventual occupation is suitably sensational... "It's no fun being an aesthete; one's sensibilities are constantly being outraged."
My opinion: oh, how I hope that I am not waiting for part IV in vain. Another brilliant tour de force (and farce) -such an uplifing concoction of with and bad taste, double-entendres and spot-on criticisms of modern life. I occasionally hear the voice of Brian Sewell; the author also lets (I think) his own views through, as in "nostalgia is my private default position" or some touching insecure asides on relationships (relationseamanships?). It has me snorting with delight: think P.G. Wodehouse on poppers, Tom Sharpe on prosecco. Still, very much his own voice, Hamilton-Patterson serves up a feast for gourmets - an absolute joy.
My opinion: oh, how I hope that I am not waiting for part IV in vain. Another brilliant tour de force (and farce) -such an uplifing concoction of with and bad taste, double-entendres and spot-on criticisms of modern life. I occasionally hear the voice of Brian Sewell; the author also lets (I think) his own views through, as in "nostalgia is my private default position" or some touching insecure asides on relationships (relationseamanships?). It has me snorting with delight: think P.G. Wodehouse on poppers, Tom Sharpe on prosecco. Still, very much his own voice, Hamilton-Patterson serves up a feast for gourmets - an absolute joy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Marvellous stuff: another JHP triumph: cannot understand why more people dont read this marvellous author who can be read at many levels but all with great enjoyment. A warped snigger on every page: an effete Tom Sharpe de nos jours?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dangerously funny
James Hamilton-Paterson is back on top form with Rancid Pansies. I enjoyed it a lot more than his second book in this series, and had several serious guffawing moments this time... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Clive M
Rancid Pansies
Although well written and amusing in parts most of the time Rancid Pansies is more ridiculous than funny. Read more
Published 16 months ago by AJ
radiances spin
I found this the best of the three Samper novels. As usual the denouement doesn't quite fulfill its promise, and the characterisation is uneven, with many characters not remotely... Read more
Published 23 months ago by barbicandy
Very, very funny trilogy...
I first became aware of HP's work with Seven Tenths. As an oceanography graduate I was thrilled by the book - it infused the ocean with poetry, drama and dread. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2010 by Cairobill
excellent -
but Cooking with Fernet Branca is still my favourite. Amazingly this author writes really beautiful serious books too.
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by Enid Irving
"It's wonderful what a good solid sum of money will do for the...
After winning the Whitbread Award in 1989 for Gerontius, a serious literary novel, Hamilton-Paterson most recently has written in a completely different vein--three wild,... Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by Mary Whipple
Third helping: A curate's egg
I genuinely liked the first two instalments of the adventures of Gerald Samper, bonvivant, aspiring artist and chef extraordinaire, mainly for the abundance of finely honed wit,... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2008 by baroquemaniac
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