<p>High up in the Conrad Flats that loom bleakly over Acton, two future stars of the literary scene - or so they assume - are hard at work, tapping out words of wit and brilliance between ill-paid jobs writing captions for the Cat Calendar 1985 and blurbs for trashy novels with titles like <i>Brothel of the Vampire</i>. Just twenty-one but already well entrenched in a life eked out on dole payments, pints and dollops of porridge and pasta, Llewellyn and Cunningham don&apos;t have it too bad: a pub on the corner, a misdirected parental allowance, and the delightful company of Aoife, Llewellyn&apos;s model fiancée, mother of his young baby - and the woman of Cunningham&apos;s increasingly vivid dreams.<br /><br />Alan Warner&apos;s superb new novel sees the author of <i>Morvern Callar</i> at the top of his game.</p>