Rancid Pansies

When we last saw our hero he had taken to his bed in England, his beloved home in Tuscany having inexplicably capsized into a ravine. As Rancid Pansies opens, Samper is recuperating in Sussex at the home of the famous conductor Max Christ when he learns that film rights to his book on Millie Cleat—the one-armed yachtswoman whose inadvertent hari-kari televised on Christmas day gave his book an enormous boost—have been sold. This windfall is sufficient to finance a return to Italy and provid...