Chapters (61)
- Cover
- About the Author
- PENGUIN BOOKS
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- The Shipwreck, 1987
- Heaven, Really
- Flying to Tower Hamlets
- The Coroner’s Office
- The Burial Ground
- Single at Mingles, 1988
- Café Italia, Soho
- Broadstairs-sur-la-Mer
- Clerken-well
- Fifty-one Days in Blackheath
- London Au Revoir
- La France
- The Freeway
- Hall of Mirrors, Versailles
- The Queen of France’s Boudoir
- A Caravan in a Country Lane
- The Convent
- Café des Fantômes, Paris
- The Camargue
- Morning in a French Lay-by
- A Thousand Miles from Home
- The Campsite
- Summer on the Coast
- The Crying Mountain
- Seeing Red in Orange Square, Marbella
- Rock of Jabal al-Tariq
- The Room in Jessie’s Head
- Mama Hortense’s Singing Kitchen
- Closing Time at Mama’s
- The Alps
- The Fêted House of Medici, Florence
- Continental Shift, Turkey
- The Silken Road
- Letter from the Court of Jessie at Ölüdeniz
- Summer of 1989: Court Budget
- Dreams of a Faraway Place
- A Trip Down Memory Lane
- Old Istanbul
- Eighteenth-century Slave Market
- In the Sultan’s Seraglio
- Life after the Camp Deserter
- The Front Line
- Güle, Güle, Ölüdeniz
- The Ocean Floor
- Eastern Anatolia
- Slipping into the Middle East
- The Supreme Court of ‘Justice’
- Antipodean Dreamtime
- The Glorious Gulf
- Epilogue: Under the Carpet at Windsor
- Acknowledgements
- Read more
- Read more
- Read more
- Read more
- THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
S She’s so, shall we say, Pre-Raphaelite, only darker, and with much larger breasts (42EE?)
J Stronger than he looks, but not so’s I couldn’t pin him down
S Such chewable lips that seek mine. Such billowy arms embracing mine
J His hands are so sensitive, like radar. Finding my magic spot, heating it up
S My hands warm her breasts. The cup runneth over
J Come and drink your milk-ilicious, Baby-Boy
S Not skimmed, semi-skimmed or fat-free but full-bodied whole: a mouth-watering, lactating fantasy
J It’s long but not as lean as his feet would suggest. In girth, more like bratwurst than chipolata, thankfully. Whatever they say – it does matter
S I’m lying weightless on top of a water bed
J My fingers count each vertebrae down to his coccyx, then circle and …
S I’ve never allowed that before. It’s quite … Oooh …
J If only I had a strap-on
S No jutting-out bones to scrape against mine like hammers and chisels in a tool bag
J Would he let me? Would he?
S Smells of sweat. Tastes of toothpaste. Damn! I forgot to brush mine
J Don’t mind his manky-breath at all. I must be smitten, eh?
S I venture downstairs. The bathroom is so clean and, well, nice-smelling
J As I moan I see us driving down the autobahn at 150mph, whooping it up, deliriously
S I clamber back up. A job well done. There’s pleasure in pleasuring another
J Ten out of ten, my tail-wagging puppy dog
S Now I’m trying to navigate, but you know, sometimes … a guy fumbles
J Let me get you an A–Z, dear. Or should we join the local orienteering society? How about a compass?
S I did tell you I wasn’t Don Juan
J Never mind, I’ll be your Girl Guide. Arkala!
S She’s saluting. She’s cracking me up!
J We-Will-Do-Our-Best!
S I want sweet nothings, but all I can manage is You’re really turning me on
J Which is nothing short of unimaginative, Stanley
S When I’m inside her, shall we say, tropical lushness, I feel so … male
J When he’s inside me, I want to pull up the drawbridge and bolt it
S Wanted comfort (100%). Wanted contrast (100%). Wanted to come (100%)
J Come with me, Stanley, dear. Wake up to wide open fields and driving on a road that leads up and away into the heavens
S She opens her eyes and a tear escapes, which she quickly wipes away
J He’s grinning like a teenager what’s just lost his virginity
S We’ve found each other, Miss O’Donnell
J Yes, we have, Mr Williams
S She rolls on top of me and I completely disappear
J Dissolve into me, for eternity …