Tarquin Winot, voluptuary, super-civilized ironist and snob, sets out on a journey of the senses from the Hotel Splendide, Portsmouth, to his cottage in Provence, his spiritual home.With his head newly shaved and his well-thumbed copy of the Mossad Manual of Surveillance Techniques safely stowed, Tarquin elegantly introduces his life, itself a work of art, through the medium of seasonal menus.Poisonously funny and opinionated, Tarquin graces us with accounts of his unjustly celebrated sculptor sibling, his beloved Irish nanny, his adoring parents, their alcoholic Norwegian cook, as well as Tarquin's neighbours in France; and the series of unfortunate accidents that they have unaccountably met with...… (more)