Jack Turner is a draftdodger Anxious not to be sent to fight in Viet Nam he has ended up in London instead By the mid 1980s he is single approaching middle age with only failed careers and failed relationships behind him Then much to his surprise he is headhunted by a literary agencyHis first client is Roger Bentinck a man purporting to be a retired MI6 agent who wants to write a memoir a memoir Her Majestys Government would much rather he didnt writeBentinck is an odd combination part slob part aesthete part rebel part patriot a combination that makes him both attractive and repellent But Jack is a literary agent and he has no clients He has one task agent to agent he has to get the book out of Bentinck whatever the cost