From the Island

 So here I am on Prince Edward Island – the island of Anne of Green Gables, though we are some miles away near Charlottetown, birthplace of the Confederation. It's the oldest grandson Sam's birthday today – his 13th, unbelievably (see this from 2012) – and good family times are being had. Still more unbelievably, Sam flew a small plane today (under instruction). He is very keen to be a pilot, and he probably will be...
  I am also, of course, enjoying discovering the local flora and fauna, including (even more of course) the butterflies – Tiger Swallowtails the stars of the show, lively Wood Nymphs liberally dotted with ringlets, and an array of Skippers throwing up tough identification challenges, which I'm mostly failing. 
  On the flight over, I read James Hamilton-Paterson's intriguingly titled Rancid Pansies, the third and last of his comic novels featuring the appalling but strangely likeable Gerald Samper (see also Cooking with Fernet-Branca and Amazing Disgrace). Rancid Pansies – the title is an anagram of Princess Diana, whose posthumous presence looms large in the book – finds Samper, reluctant ghost writer to the stars, almost defeated, as who would not be after their house has been destroyed in an earthquake. No sooner has he recovered his usual high spirits than disaster strikes again, at the Suffolk home of conductor Max Christ. However, an unlikely turn of events back in Tuscany sets Samper on a wholly unexpected new course that could lead to something looking very much like success, and an escape from the old ghost-writing life. For most of its length, Rancid Pansies is every bit as satisfyingly funny a page-turner as its predecessors, with the same regular cast of characters, but I found I was laughing less as events moved towards the tumultuous climax. Maybe there is a simply less comedy in things finally going well for Gerald Samper, who, like most comic characters, thrives on calamity and failure – and maybe three outings was enough. On the other hand, if there was a fourth – Samper Redux – I know I'd snap it up.