Read ‘The Steep Approach To Garbadale’ and couldn’t believe how poor it was. Where has the energy and originality of his old books gone? Where’s the invention of ‘The Wasp Factory’, ‘The Bridge’, ‘The Crow Road’. More than where’s the writing ability? His prose is so lame and tired now. And the plot! It could be written by a computer. Disaffected member of a large rich family, who have lived off the profits of a game called Empire for decades, returns to the family nest to learn that the secret of his life is that his parents are not really his parents and that he is the product of an incestuous relationship between two dysfunctional relatives.

It was a disappointing read, and deserved the skipping and scanning I did from page 100. Not worth wasting your time on.