BOOK REVIEW: FREDDIE: THE ROSE CROSSING by Nicholas Jose

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THE ROSE CROSSING by Nicholas Jose, Hamish Hamilton £9.99

17th-century incest is the starting-point for this peculiar Australian tale. Marooned on a tropical island with just his daughter for company, botanist Edward Popple thinks he has found Paradise. But all too soon temptation arrives, in the person of a Chinese prince and a boat-load of yellow roses. While Popple gets to work cross-pollinating, his beloved daughter gets down to some stamen-dusting of her own. Stumbling across the key to the young prince's heart - he likes to be urinated on - she downs several cups of fragrant Chinese brew and thus secures not only the lad's happiness but the future of the Ming dynasty. Not bad going.