OH NO. NOT a novel with an index. The heart sinks at such vaunted smart-arsery, or at least that’s the normal reaction. But Philips Hensher is no normal writer, and even the index of his new, indexed comic novel is funny. ‘Bible, relationship between Northern Line and, 114 . . . Horses, scarcity of in Brornley, 71 . . . The Tablet, enthusiasm of for sexual perversion, 30’. Not only is he genuinely funny, but he’s always up to something new. Last time around it was the splendid Imperial door-stopper, The Mulberry Empire, and now it’s an almost unclassifiable, unsettling, contemporary novel about a man with hiccups.

Jul 2004

Not Much Comfort

Night Plunderers & River Pilferers

Heretic in the Pulpit

What the Doctor Ordered

Joyful Logorrhoea

Serving up a Treat

Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Cet Homme?

Turning Up One’s Nose

Fifty Shades of Success

Kiss Kiss

Modern Manhood

Culture Clash

Existence of an Exile

Grim OOP North

Horribly Sane

The Caribbean Queen

The Joylessness of Self

Savage Life

The Order of the Good Death

The Old, Nowadays- They’re All the Same

Heart And Seoul

Something Rotten in the Borough of Camden

Drink With The Joneses

Talking Statues

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