Richard Vaisey, Anna's sponsor and soon-to-be lover is a middle-aged academic, a professor of Slavonic studies not so happily married to wife Cordelia.

Anna attempts to portray her would-be oligarch brother, in legal trouble in Russia, as a dissident in order to elicit support from the London literati.

The New York Times describing it as '"more of a good wine, vintage Amis: smooth, dry and not overpriced.

"[1] The Los Angeles Times called it "a wonderful new concert of plot and language that provokes both belly laughs and twinges of discomfort".

[2] Kirkus Reviews described it thus: "Vintage Amis — as divisive, compelling, and hilarious as the Bobbitt trial".