I like Chinese...

Excuse the gratuitous Python reference.

Bashed out Casanova's Chinese Restaurant over a couple of days this week and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Surprised, because I felt sure at the time that some of those typical contrivances were just going to annoy me. The flashback sequence was irritating, and one gets the impression that Powell, four volumes in, suddenly realised that he was going to be one major character short for the rest of the series, so clumsily introduces Moreland out of thin air. Moreland, for whom Powell's friend Constant Lambert was prototype, completes the artistic triumvirate with Isbister and St John Clarke (echoes of Proust here... do I get bonus marks?), and is set (according to Spurling) to become a very significant friend of Jenkins. He is a fairly sympathetic character, but has suffered a little in comparison with Stringham, Templer and Widmerpool from his late introduction. Perhaps this will seem less significant over time though. I have, however, ceased to be annoyed by all those random happenings, and the oh so Powellian coincidental meeting of Jenkins, Moreland and Widmers in the nursing home was actually just amusing. The twist(s) at the end were also good fun, and we are also left with something of a cliffhanger concerning Widmerpool's mutterings about future plans and rumours that he is about to run for Parliament.

All in all, much darker than previous volumes - I think Will already said this, but it's hard to disagree - and with trouble brewing on the continent, then darker times would appear to lie ahead. Most of all though, this volume seemed to be superbly well structured - Powell is clearly getting into his stride just as we are.

On a final note, I have discovered that there is a spendid and annually awarded Widmerpool Award, given to the public figure adjudged to have behaved in the most Widmerpudlian fashion in the preceding 12 months. Winners, which have included Max Hastings and Lord Irvine, receive an engraved "wrong sort of overcoat". Hurrah!