Amazing Disgrace

Yes, Samper is back, cooking up delectable dishes that tend to explode delightfully in his own face. This book is just as funny as "Cooking With Fernet," though if anything the satire is angrier, more focused. We meet Millie Cleat, the "one-armed old sea bitch" whose megalomania is a wondrous match for Samper's, and who (like Samper) has a gift for hoisting herself with her own petard. There are times when Samper comes dangerously close to being a three-dimensional character, but fortunately his penchant for awful puns, double entendres, and lewd anagrams saves him from this unwelcome fate. He remains a rootless hedonist who makes a crust by writing celebrity biographies and who even convinces himself that "in default of any serious alternative ... lotus eating is definitely the way forward." Ever the survivor, he moves from one disgraceful episode to the next, his adventures all alike in being completely devoid of significance. And in his wake you can hear the grateful laughter of his readers.

and he gets into the most ridiculous situations. It is still laugh out loud and read out loud funny. Less cooking than in "Cooking with Fernet Branca" - perhaps there are a limited number of gut wrenching culinary combinations even the fertile imagination of Hamilton-Paterson can dream up? I have to say, I did miss Marta. Sometimes the solid pages of Samper reflection got to be too rich, like gorging on hunting dog pate. I got the feeling at the end that perhaps Samper still has some legs for further books, and if that happens I'll make some time and space, pretend that I've flown to a safe distance from "TV Cheffies" and all things mundane, and savor the further adventures of this most unusual character.