Confessions of a Map Dealer

Dec 16, 2025 5:17 AM

Author:Paul Micou

'My first mistake was to be heterosexual.'

Such is one of several complaints in the first of four conversations between Henry Hart - who is a married father of two young girls - and his long-time friend, Darius Saddler - who is gay and unattached.

It is just over a year since the two men last met. Crippled and humiliated by debt, Hart - a dealer in antique maps - has managed to ruin his marriage, to commit an undeniable act of theft, and to become a suspect in France for a very serious crime.

With a lover on the side, a stolen map in his pocket, an ace French detective on his trail, a wife who is unusually cold and in the know, it is time for Hart to enlist the help of his oldest friend.

Confessions of a Map Dealer relates the attempts of Hart and Saddler to knit their lives together again, and to extricate Hart from the myriad problems he has brought upon himself.

A mystery, a one-sided love story, a tale of guilt, blackmail and self-delusion, Confessions of a Map Dealer is an intricate comedy of errors from a celebrated practitioner of the genre.

Reviews

Ingenious

—— Evening Standard

An enthralling story of love and loss, a real literary treasure. One of the most original novels of the year

—— Robert Harris

You don't need to be in archaeology - this is a tale of rivalry, loss and thwarted love. It's so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it's not often I miss a meal

—— Nigella Lawson

A rich vein of dry humour runs throughout

—— Evening Standard

Intriguing, tender and entertaining … easily Preston's best

—— Independent

A delicate, quietly affecting human drama

—— Daily Mail

A moving novel that coheres wonderully as it progresses

—— Spectator

A delicate evocation of a vanished era

—— Sunday Times

Wonderful, evocative. From this simple tale of dirt, Preston has produced the finest gold. He keeps an iron grip on the reader's attention

—— Observer

Beatutifully written...there is a true and wonderful ending to the story

—— Bill Wyman , Mail on Sunday

Wistful and poignant. A masterpiece in Chekhovian understatement

—— Times Literary Supplement

Exciting, evocative and beautifully written. A treasure in itself

—— Griff Rhys Jones

Shimmers with longing and regret . . . Preston writes with economical grace . . . He has written a kind of universal chamber piece, small in detail, beautifully made and liable to linger on in the heart and the mind. It is something utterly unfamiliar, and quite wonderful.

—— Michael Pye , The New York Times Book Review

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

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