A literary satire of ambition and celebrity-seeking in a nocturnal underground world of Edwardian nursery-tale characters trampled over by desperately modern detritus and cast-offs all trying to be some kind of somebody. *** In the dire twilight of a blazing afternoon, Herbie Peel is born in the kitchen sink of an upmarket farmhouse outside Toronto, with a cool patio out back shaded by an awning propped up in the best traditions of Jamaican sugar plantations. 'You're a fantastic writer, but publishing this book in Canada will ruin your career before it even starts. Get on the bestseller lists first.' Janie Yoon, literary agent's assistant, Toronto. Herbie's fall from the mother potato is nothing compared to the shock of hitting the cold steel, which knocks a bit of the starch out of him. As he lies dazed under the trickling tap, orphaned, bruised, and already despised, the last fresh air of the world drifts in from the candlelit patio where tony guests from Toronto talk art, radio and publishing prizes.... Washed over by waves of awakenings, young Herbie soaks up big ambitions. Will he be the smartest Prince Edward Red ever, or just another pretentious phoney? 'I can't decide if you're a genius or a lunatic.' Chris Labonte, McIntyre & Douglas, Vancouver. After absorbing the last of the hallucinations of the bitterly unfulfilled hunchback, no artist he, who bought the old stone farmhouse for his radical artist-professor partner, formerly known as 'wife', the little peel rushes off into the dark to make it big - and slips straight into the pages of an old book of nursery tales left open on the dewy grass. 'What makes this novel so brave and so original is exactly what would make it so difficult to publish.' Judy Clain, Little, Brown, New York.