Their Lips Talk of Mischief

High up in the Conrad Flats that loom bleakly over Acton, two future stars of the literary scene - or so they assume - are hard at work, tapping out words of wit and brilliance between ill-paid jobs writing captions for the Cat Calendar 1985 and blurbs for trashy novels with titles like Brothel of the Vampire. Just twenty-one but already well entrenched in a life eked out on dole payments, pints and dollops of porridge and pasta, Llewellyn and Cunningham don´t have it too bad: a pub on the corner, a misdirected parental allowance, and the delightful company of Aoife, Llewellyn´s model fiancee, mother of his young baby - and the woman of Cunningham´s increasingly vivid dreams. Alan Warner´s superb new novel sees the author of Morvern Callar at the top of his game...