Mike Engleby says things that others dare not even think. When the novel opens in the 1970's, he is a university student, having survived a 'traditional' school. A man devoid of scruple or self-pity, Engleby provides a witheringly frank account of English education.

Just before Danny Cadogan's 14th birthday, his father leaves. Having drunkenly run up a gambling debt he cannot pay, Big Dan Cadogan takes the easy way out. Determined to protect his mother, brother and sister, something changes in Danny and, overnight, he turns into a young man set on making his way in a violent and dangerous world.

Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front of World War II, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He will not speak of what happened to him and his family. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal's uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France. There, Hannibal lives with his uncle and his uncle's beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki, who helps...

Historical, domestic and sexy, this is a story of war, meat and desire on the home front, set in South London's dark and dirty wartime streets during World War I.