- When the young Ian Wharton first meets Mr Broadhurst, he is completely unaware of the influence he will come to exert over his life as "The Fat Controller" - a constant companion and confidant and also the obese, erudite manifestation of Ian" s mental illness. As Ian"s idea of fun becomes increasingly extreme, the reader is taken to a place where morality is eroded by the dull grind of modernity and everything becomes admissable.