Hello! Hello! Hello! What have we here? What we have is the new Plant – the sixth – from Michael Wilding, Emeritus Professor of English and Australian Literature, University of Sydney.

And is it ever a cracker? Well, no. Wilding is a slow-burn writer. As aficionados of his Plant stories know, he does not deal in knuckle-sandwiches, quick-draw pistoleering or intrepid venery as befits an M.A.