Alan Halliday plunges the reader into a potent cocktail of Proust, sex, drugs, haute couture, Pop Art, theatre, opera, ballet and photography. He transports us from a Blackpool beach in the 1950s to the Bal Proust in 1971 at the chateau de Ferrieres, from Marrakech with Yves Saint-Laurent, Pierre Berge and the Majorelle gardens to downtown Manhattan, markers in the gripping Odyssey and Proustian quest of Dolly and Johnny in their attempts to rediscover each other after being separated.

Alan Halliday is an engaging raconteur, and this book, with its rich repertoire of various accents and voices, lends itself to a perfect audiobook.

Review by Cynthia Gamble, a noted authority on Marcel Proust, and author, most recently, of Marie Nordlinger, la muse anglaise de Marcel Proust (2024)