- Paris, spring 1968. Christopher is fully occupied revelling in first lust. Just a short Métro ride away from les événements, as Toni never ceases to remind him. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize.The adolescent Christopher and his soulmate Toni had sneered at the stifling ennui of Metroland, their cosy patch of suburbia on the Metropolitan line. They had longed for Life to begin - meaning Sex and Freedom - to travel and choose their own clothes. Then Chris, at thirty, starts to settle comfortably into bourgeois contentment himself. Luckily, Toni is still around to challenge such backsliding.