Kim Bunce on The Crimson Petal and the White

Michael Holland on Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White

Sarah Adams, Alfred Hickling and Alice Chambers on Monsieur Malaussène | Property | A Sad Affair | Middlesex | A Perfect Hoax | The Crimson Petal and the White

Michel Faber , born in Holland in 1960, emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of seven. His works include the novels Under The Skin, The Crimson Petal And The White and a short story collection, Some Rain Must Fall.

Sugar, the soul of thoughtfulness, has been drying William's trousers by the fire. This will not be the last incontinence in this story, nor the last fire. Now read on. . .

Mounting the stairs, William feels his ears burning red, his brow prickling with sweat. His bladder aches with every step, his balance is not the best, his vision requires regular eye-blinks to clear the gathering mists. Time is running out on his sexual coup...

Dear reader: William Rackham has just met Sugar, a prostitute highly recommended by her peers. He had intended to make rough use of her, but is smitten by her intelligence, her beauty, and her prodigious knowledge of literature. Dazzled and rather drunk, he allows her to lead him out of The Fireside and into the streets. Now read on. . .

Dear reader: If you have somehow missed the first fifteen episodes, you are in the happy position of arriving just as William Rackham, reluctant heir to Rackham Perfumeries and frustrated aesthete, is about to meet the person who will transform his life beyond recognition. Made miserable by the pressure his father is exerting upon him to take the reins of the business, William has become convinced that only a particular prostitute called Sugar, recommended to him by a couple of lower creatures in Drury Lane, will restore his equilibrium. He waits for her in The Fireside, a drinking house in Husband Street, and, after being pestered intolerably by three other whores, he sees Sugar walk in at last. She is rain-drenched, and looks just like. . . well, just like she looked at the end of the last episode. Now read on. . .

Dear reader: William Rackham, reluctant heir to Rackham Perfumeries and frustrated aesthete, has decided that the only thing that will take his mind off his miseries is a particular prostitute called Sugar...

The following evening, William alights from a cab in Silver Street, ready to stride across the threshold of his destiny and claim whatever lies on the other side. His travails begin immediately.

It should never be necessary to ring a doorbell more than once - especially if it's one's own. Principles like that should damn well be tattooed on servants' thumbs, to help them remember.

Dear reader: the last instalment ended in a shameless tease, with William walking into the bedroom of the supposed twins, Claire and Alice.
Now read on...

Dear reader: At the end of the last instalment, William enjoyed a brief encounter with his old university chums. Their conversation, mostly about whoring, has roused in William an appetite for a different kind of embrace altogether. Now read on...