The University of Odium

Odium is a provincial English university town. A new American Professor, Cannon Buckrack, arrives to take up a research post there, but he is not what he seems. He has in fact been hired by the University’s ruthless Vice Chancellor, Sir Evan Covet, to sort out once and for all the many problems he has experienced from his enemies among the staff. But as the story unfolds, we gradually come to learn that Buckrack has a mission of his own and that he can be stopped by no one. As a result of his unorthodox and direct methods, the University spins entirely out of control over a six week period, and events build towards a spectacular and unexpectedly explosive climax.Among a host of comic characters are Nigel Asterisk, the weasel-like Registrar; Avril Poon, the corrupt Union president; James Redman, her morally upstanding deputy; Sergei Krokoff, a Ukrainian Professor of broken English; Jane Blake, a femme fatale postgraduate student; Robert McNamara, a disillusioned Professor of Politics who now seeks a path to spiritual enlightenment; and Drago Baum, who gives a single lecture which causes an international diplomatic incident. THE UNIVERSITY OF ODIUM reflects all the features of the twenty-first century university: sexual intrigue, thirst for revenge, blackmail, viciousness, erudite stupidity, hypocrisy, selfishness, egomania, greed and general iniquity.