A must for anyone interested in Pride and Prejudice, Bob Dylan, the movie "Blow-Up", Bolshevism, and the struggle against the M11 link road, this remarkable collection of stories probes the relationship between carp and revolution, the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Paris Commune, imperialism and the sex life of Jane Austen, and anti-roads protests and Alexander Pope, as well as the connection between "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and "New Labour". It also includes a valuable biography of the international socialist Edith Cavell, told entirely through her involvement with vegetables, as well as a diary of the 39-day strike at Thrabb's and a re-telling of the legendary Henry James seminar at My Lai.