This is the first book I have read by the improbably named Robert Rankin (this has to be a pseudonym).

I almost daren't try to give a synopsis of the story, because I will probably make it sound so silly, that it will put you off reading it.

So, let me say at the outset that is all the following: very funny, completely zany, off-the wall humour, flippant, innovative, imaginative, irreverent, and the sort of book that school teachers used to confiscate from kids on the grounds that it was "rubbish".

He starts off by mentioning an ancestor who died at the battle of the Little Big Horn... not as a combatant, but as a farmer who had gone to complain to Custer that his troops were ruining his crop of sprouts.

I found it very refreshing and enjoyable. In a way, it is a total waste of time.... this book will not fill any gaps in your education, or make you a better person, nor contribute towards solving any of the world's problems, but it will make you laugh.

The protagonist is a youth of 15 who looks 45. He is the possessor of an extraordinary power to influence world events... and he attracts the attentions of the sinister Ministry of Serendipity.... now read on.