About the Author

Allan Cameron writes in English and Italian, and has published two novels: this one and The Golden Menagerie (Luath Press, 2004). He has published a book on language, In Praise of the Garrulous (Vagabond Voices, 2008) and a collection of poetry (Vagabond Voices, 2009)He has also translated twenty-five books and has published articles in Reset, Teoria Politica, L'Unita and Renaissance Studies. Praise for previous books: "The Golden Menagerie (Luath Press, 2004) is highly rewarding in the richness, precision and humour of its language, the enviable lucidity of its thought and in that classical humanist quality it insinuates, of simultaneous lightness and profundity, a sleight which can alter perception." - Suhayl Saadi, Scottish Review of Books "Allan Cameron's The Golden Menagerie is a work almost impossible to classify, although it is just possible to fit this marriage of fantastic invention and reflections on the human predicament and our times, ..., into the capacious container called the 'novel'. In some ways it recalls the conversation pieces of Thomas Love Peacock, although the invention is more fantastic. Whatever we call it, it is consistently fascinating and readable, the work of a writer of high intelligence who has a stylish way with words." - Eric Hobsbawm In Praise of the Garrulous - "a deeply reflective, extraordinarily wide-ranging meditation on the nature of language, infused in its every phrase by a passionate humanism" - Terry Eagleton "[In Presbyopia Cameron]steers clear of personal topics, turning his presbyopic gaze outward in a sequence of poems that take in eco-vandalism, press barons, George W. Bush and death. One admires his determination to reject the pretension and obscurantism that winds its way around to much of the poetry that crosses the desk these days." - Colin Waters, Scottish Review of Books

Reviews

- a profound, intelligent novel that asks serious, adult questions about what it means to be alive.A" - Martin Tierney, The Herald The Berlusconi Bonus is an adroit and satisfying satire on the iniquities of present-day life from insane consumerism to political mendacity, globalisation to the War on Terror. It is both very funny and an extremely astute analysis of the evil results of a philosophy which sings the victory song of extreme free-market economics.A" - Peter Wittaker, The New Internationalist I say buy it. It makes you think.A" - Dominic Hilton, The New Humanist Cameron grapples with Fukuyama's theories on the end of the totalitarian ideologies and a plausible future scenario in which 'all Muslims were either massacred or expelled from the Federation' and there are 'no tradesmen now, and there are no artists, musicians or writers.'A" - La Stampa