The title of Glendinning's novel has less to do with the fact that its hero, Martagon, is an artist-engineer, working in glass and masterminding the construction of an airport in Provence, and more to do with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra: in particular, that scene of the sea battle when Antony, like a 'doting mallard', abandons the fight and flies after Cleopatra, leaving Scarus to lament, 'Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before/Did violate so itself.'

This could well describe the situation of Martagon (named by his mother after an Alpine lily) who, we learn in the prologue, has 'lost his love, and maybe his honour and his reputation as well'.ÊAnd all because of the strumpet/crumpet Marina de CabriŒres.

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