Lonely George, whose supernatural gift has wrecked his chances with a giggly beauty he meets at an Italian cookery class, goes to sleep listening to Charles Dickens's audio books.

In many ways it is a very modern book: Mrs Beeton's recipes and kitchen tips are the kind of thing you still get in cookery books today.

This is a man who describes reading cookery books in bed, and confesses to spending his teenage years pouring over recipes.