I came to this when looking to see what other books were appearing 'online' by the Binscombe Tales author. Well its certainly different! To start with its breathtakingly rude... And this is nothing like the 18th century politics I studied - it is full of the most unlikely characters (tranvestite duellists?) and non-stop, riotous excess, cowardice and political point scoring on a 'personal' basis. Its wicked and humerous. As I read on, I began to wonder if in fact the time of Wilkes wasn't actually (a bit) like this - e.g. the more unlikely the character the more they turned out to have been historical figures. After all the Victorians must have been reacting against something.
In some ways it reminded me of Lord Rochester (the film version as much as the writing!)and in some ways it has a similar effect - I'm not sure whether I admire its honesty and relish it as an antidote to dull history, a reminder of the lost spirit of the past, or whether I want to come over all Victorian and demand Mr Whitbourn ban it, and get back to the supernatural. So I've given it 3 stars - an average of the 1 or 5 I think other people will give it (and a measure of my own ambiguity: I want to give it 5 but would feel guilty at admiring something so rude). Try it - be prepared for extreme reaction, good or bad.
