Carnaval: A wry contemporary mystery

London, in the never-ending post-crash decade shortly before Brexit and it rains a lot, mostly on the young as they try to shift for themselves.

Honoré has found herself in thrall to the seemingly Machiavellian much older Gerald working in a mysterious mansion as a discreet hostess to bacchanalia held for the great and the good. She recruits her reluctant sister and then, Sam to her cause.

Enter, Carnaval, a quixotic soak who should have been born centuries ago, who plunges those he knows into chaos. Why his ex-wife, his permanently angry daughter, and, eventually, Honoré and her gang should care what happens to him is anybody's guess. But in uniting to help him, perhaps they'll discover their own true future selves and love-stories.

A gently humorous compassionate tale for our times