Hippopotamus

Ted Wallace is a sour, old, cantankerous beast, a womanising and whisky-sodden bounder of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too.

Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months' repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend Lord Logan.

But strange things have been going on at Swafford. Miracles. Healings. Phenomena beyond the comprehension of a mud-caked hippopotamus like Ted.

'Clever...witty...not what it seems' The Times

'My goodness what fruity language Fry uses! You can feel his enjoyment, and also the huge force of his desire to please you, as you read this' Daily Mail

Review: My goodness what fruity language Fry uses! You can feel his enjoyment, and also the huge force of his desire to please you, as you read this * Mail on Sunday *
Fresh, filthy, funny and fizzing with ideas * Evening Standard *
One of the funniest people writing on either side of the Atlantic ... like a combination of Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis but funnier than either * Publishers Weekly *
Deliciously wicked * New York Times *