Spring 2001, and the countryside of the North East of England is choked with the stench of smoke and pyres burning to contain the foot and mouth epidemic.
After forty years away, Ray Cruddas, a comedian with a considerably faded national reputation, has returned to the north east with a new wife and a new club. But he still believes he is living at one remove, through the more vibrant personality of his gofer, the former boxer Jackie Mabe.
Mabe performed this role once before: for Jack Solomons who ruled British boxing before and after the War. Solomons is among the many real life figures who populate this extraordinary blend of fact and fiction, re-animating and reinventing popular culture.
