It is the 1980s and the Winshaw family are getting richer and crueller by the year: Newspaper-columnist Hilary gets thousands for telling it like it isn't; Henry's turning hospitals into car parks; Roddy's selling art in return for sex; down on the farm Dorothy's squeezing every last pound from her livestock; Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange; and Mark is selling arms to dictators. But once their hapless biographer Michael Owen starts investigating the family's trail of greed, corruption and immoral doings, the time growing ripe for the Winshaws to receive their comeuppance. . . This wickedly funny take on life under the Thatcher government was the winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Michael Owen, un jeune homme dépressif et agoraphobe, a été chargé par la vieille Tabitha Winshaw d'écrire la chronique de l'illustre famille Winshaw. Il va découvrir des vices et des méfaits d'une ampleur insoupçonnée ; par une nuit d'orage, alors que tous sont réunis au manoir de Winshaw Towers, la vérité éclatera.