Book description
How does Jeremiah Mount, the dealer in pornography, come to be the
lover of the Duchess of Albemarle and the colleague of the great Samuel
Pepys? In Pepys' Diary, Jem Mount plays a shadowy role, but in Jem's own
memories Sam looms large. Friends and drinking partners at first, they
become vicious rivals for fame and women. In his struggle to survive and
triumph over his adversary in a rackety world, Jemm stumbles into many
trades: chemist, butler, soldier, secretary and, now and then, lover.
This 'newly discovered autobiography' - with its disconcerting echoes of
our own time - takes its dubious hero from the shaky days of Cromwellian
England, through the unbuttoned license of the Restoration, to the panic
of Monmouth's Rebellion and the Jamaica sugar boom. Ferdinand Mount
was Editor of
The Times Literary Supplement
from 1991 to 2003. He is a reviewer, influential columnist and
political commentator. He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Of
Love and Asthma.
He is also the author of Heads You Win.
