'He wanted very large sums of money, the friendship of titled and distinguished men, the love of beautiful women who were also famous. He was twenty, and his dreams were titanic.'

Ticky's father has bought him a position in Queen Victoria's most famous regiment: the First Bloods. Spending his last pennies on lavish accommodation and a fine stallion, Ticky arrives at The Club: the mighty glass towers in central London where the First Bloods reign supreme. Here, dressed in their violet cloth and copper lace, the First Bloods and their regimental servants fight over a portion of recreational ground, row over rituals, and dole out extraordinary punishments.

Satirising the pomp of all-male military societies, Ticky was Gibbons' own favourite of her novels.

'Gibbons proves herself to possess a natural and effortless talent for the burlesque' Times Literary Supplement