In Pisa, in the spring of 1822, Ross inveigles himself into the dissolute circle of Byron and Shelley. He now divides his time between the south-west of France and Chelsea, where he lives a stone’s throw from James Bond’s London address. There is a gleeful attitude in playing fast and loose with history and certain details, such as the unfortunate end of the Nile explorer John Hanning Speke, which could easily have emerged from the pages of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman chronicles. However, unlike that epic yet intimate tale of political intrigue and erotic frustration, Boyd’s novel is more of an historical soap opera than a literary masterpiece.

Once journalists get their hands on them,those curt, day-to-day messages can be just a tad embarrassing — as this week’s expletive-laden evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry confirms.William Boyd has tried on many different generic hats in his 40 years as an author, but he reports that his readers have engaged particularly deeply with his “whole life novels”. Set in the 19th century, the novel follows the roller-coaster fortunes of a man as he tries to negotiate the random stages, adventures and vicissitudes of his life. I tore through it in two days and while it's not quite as masterful as Any Human Heart, it is very, very good. At times I thought things were going to take a different direction and if anything it highlights the way that impulsive decisions shape your life and that there are always multiple ways that things could unspool. The fictional biography of Cashel Greville Ross takes us from his beginnings as an orphan living with his aunt in rural Ireland through the many adventures and loves in his life.

Cashel’s relationships with women tend to be interrupted by either his roving nature or his impetuosity. But what is often lost behind the sheer pleasure brought by his books is their layered Chekhovian subtleties: Boyd is abundantly talented at capturing life’s disconnections, in prose that provides no easy consolations.Written as a fictional biography Boyd weaves in true historical events and people giving us a insightful sweep into 19th century life spanning many countries and continents. He is tall, a gifted linquist, and good-looking to the point where, somewhat implausibly in both cases, women of all ranks want to jump immediately into bed with him.