Book Information

Following the advice of his long-suffering housekeeper, genial octogenarian Mr. Mee abandons dusty books and turns to the Internet in search of Rosier's Encyclopaedia, a lost book proposing the philosophy of an alternative universe. Instead he finds a photograph of a naked girl reading "Ferrand and Minard: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Search for Lost Time". Meanwhile, in the spring of 1761, the two French copyists Ferrand and Minard find themselves in possession of Rosier's Encyclopaedia and pursued by the authorities who want to claim its secrets for themselves. The interwoven stories which follow concern Rousseau's madness, a dying scholar's love, and Mr. Mee's belated discovery of sex, drugs and Jimmy Shand. A collage of history, fantasy and intellectual caprice which ultimately provides a history of the Internet.

Andrew Crumey was born in Glasgow in 1961. He studied theoretical physics at St. Andrew's University and Imperial College in London, and now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is the author of 3 previous works, Music, in a Foreign Language, (which won the 1994 Saltire Society Award for Best First Book), Pfitz and D'Alembert's Principle. He is a regular reviewer for Scotland on Sunday.