The story so far: Rosamund’s father has become ensnared by Mr. Shabby’s extraordinary personal magnetism. Bob and Janet have eaten Mr. Farquar’s goldfish during an Oxfam lunch, and Mrs. Elsmore’s marriage is threatened by Doug’s insistence that he is on a different level of consciousness. Louise’s hernia has been confirmed, and Jim, Bob’s brother, has run over the editor of the ‘Lancet’ on his way to see Jenny, a freelance Pagoda designer. On the other side of the continent Napoleon still broods over the smoldering remains of a city he had crossed half the earth to conquer…