Time and Place - Alan Sheridan

There are several words to describe this book - none of them terribly flattering: pretentious, chaotic, self-indulgent, rambling, incoherent, dull, boring, overwritten and substantially flawed. This is (supposedly) based on the genuine journals are reminiscences of a relative of the playwright and politician Richard Brindsley Sheridan. Set at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century it recounts (in an extremely confusing way, with chapters going backwards and forwards in time) the travels and sexual adventures of a young rich man with little to occupy his time. He 'walks' on the stage, he goes to school, he visits realtions, (his father is in the diplomatic service), he goes to University, he meets minor celebrities of the arts, and along the way we are presented with vast amounts of facts, about people, places, books, plays, history geography and social, sexual habits and behaviours of the time. I often felt bludgeoned by the sheer volume of facts. It is almost as though the author is trying to constantly trying to demonstrate his knowledge and the thoroughness of his research. So, we go to Berlin, and in rapid succession we go to several plays (and are 'treated' to the minutiae of producing a play) visit several hotels, bars, explore the streets, examine the politics of the period, huge numbers of names are trotted out (far too many to take in or care about). Meanwhile in London, a welter of concerts, operas, concert halls, public conveniences, turkish baths, books, Dan Lenos life history, lists of actors (and their histories) are spewed forth.
And after 480 pages do I really know anything about the central character? NO - do I care? Double NOOOO!!!!!
Rating: 3/10.