Push, a novel by an American writer called Sapphire, produced both reactions. Indeed, for the overkill...There will be one or two deaths, but not many." So, not an overkill at all, then. The English are clumsy and gross and at the same time runtish They do not make the best of themselves. Their bodies are thick, their faces are either pinched and beaky like mean birds or shapeless as potatoes." Is Drabble speaking for herself here? She doesn't seem to be speaking for David Niven, Cary Grant, Vivien Leigh or Julie Christie.

And "pure- bred English" is a stupidly racist contradiction in terms.Nearing the end, the narrator says, "We are nearing the end Soon we can go for the kill. The pure-bred English are a motley, mottled, mongrel ugly breed, blotched with all the wrong pigments, with hair that does not do much for them at all. You see it coming the instant Drabble introduces him, but that doesn't make it any easier to bear.Will Paine, a character intended to be catalytic but really just peripheral, is half-Jamaican and, we are told, "too nice-looking to be pure-bred English. There are no landlord- tenant relations involved.Nathan's mother, meanwhile, doesn't like him living in his trendy South Bank block because there's an E in the postcode, an ugly reminder of the East End their Jewish family worked hard to escape from We are told she "hasn't moved with the times. She won't even eat food with an E in it." Surely a preoccupation with E-numbered food additives is as neurotically modern as you can get?David D'Anger, a suave Guyanese academic married to another of the sisters, is repeatedly described, because of his dazzling powers of persuasion, as "dangerous".

The allusion to the great illustrator helps us to visualise the scene and ties in with fairytale parallels elsewhere, but the chiming sound of "wracked" makes it all embarrassingly self-conscious and the suggestion of "rackrent" is a complete irrelevance. Describing the vast and hideous house where Frieda the "witch" lives in remotest Devon, the narrator asks, "What folly had built this folly here...?" For noticing that madness and an extravagant building can both be referred to by the word "folly", nul points.Frieda walks through her overgrown grounds, "this wracked and rent, this Rackham woodland". The mugging ingredient is a hefty thump of garlic.This chutney could almost be the HP of Asian condiments: the "all-purpose dip" for samosas, bhajias, kebabs and blistered portions of tandoori meats, marinated lamb cutlets in particular. This is something that is a permanent condiment in her Sydney fridge - at least it always seems to be. If I was to describe this bright green sludge as addictive, then it would surely be an understatement: fresh and herby, sprightly from chilli, warmed by a hint of cumin and sharpened with citric juices. Mellow coconut milk is the lubricator and salt and sugar provide final seasoning.