It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
A Short Gentleman

A Short Gentleman

Summary

How did Robert Purcell, distinguished barrister and perfect specimen of the British Establishment, end up in prison? An intellectual giant but an emotional pygmy, Robert is a man struggling to come to terms with the forces that have brought him down, from the wife who wanted him to change, to the ex-girlfriend who came back to haunt him and the childhood bully who turned into an adult bully.

Despite everything, Robert remains the same magnificently self-righteous man he always was, utterly resistant to therapy, change and the emotional demands of the opposite sex.

Reviews

  • He is arguably the finest comic novelist working in Britain today. Indeed, he may just be finest comic anything working in Britain right now... Canter's prose is achingly funny...it is also vital, acute, literary and oddly moving.
    James Kidd, Independent

About the author

Jon Canter

Learn More

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more