Alienation and adultery, Pampers and plagiarism, and lashings of sex and satire in a brilliantly funny first novel

Thirty-something Morris Gutman is a chronically indecisive temporary lecturer at the University of Coketown.

Life hasn't turned out as he planned: he has a demanding wife, an insomniac child and teaches demeaning courses to ungrateful English students.

However, he is willing to do whatever it takes to negotiate a permanent departmental job, even if it means finding his way through the minefield that is academia and winning over the alluring and manipulative research fellow Zoe Cable.