Hadrian the Seventh

''If there be one place in all this orb of earth where a secret is a Secret, that place is a Roman Conclave''

Part novel, part daydream, part diatribe, this strange masterpiece tells the story of George Arthur Rose, a poor, frustrated writer who lives in a shabby bedsit, saving his cigarette ends and eating soup - until one day he is made Pope. As the first English pontiff in five centuries, he is...