Old Men in Love, By Alisdair Gray

The outré contents of Alisdair Gray's fiction are always more than matched by his alluring typographical flourishes and decorative designs.

The main narrative of his latest novel is taken up with the posthumous papers of retired schoolmaster, John Tunnock, apparently edited by Gray himself.

Tunnock's historical accounts include a recreation of Periclean Athens and a study of Henry James Prince, a Victorian Church of England renegade. He also fills us in on the Glencoe Massacre, Abu Ghraib and Tony Blair.

As the author advises in his preface: "Old Men in Love is bound to sell well because eveyone now feels old after 25..." Only the young would have enough puff to keep up with this energetic and inventive jeu d'esprit.