The Discovery of Chocolate: A Novel

Description

A wonderfully inventive and entertaining journey through time and the history of chocolate! The Discovery of Chocolate is a fabulous tale, as rich and exotic as the gorgeous creation that Diego de Godoy first discovers when he arrives in Mexico with Cortes and his conquistadors. Diego is seeking his fortune in the New World. What he finds is love, and chocolate, and an elixir of life. Separated from his lover, he must wander the world, and the centuries, in search of the fulfilment that he first knew in Mexico. In a series of dramatic episodes that are evocative, witty and thought-provoking, from revolutionary Paris to Freud's Vienna, Fry's Bristol and Hershey's Pittsburgh, Diego and his ever-faithful greyhound, Pedro, seek the perfection of chocolate and the meaning of life.

James Runcie is an award - winning film-maker whose work includes 'Miss Pym's Day Out', 'Childhood', 'Great Composers', 'How Buildings Learn', 'The Figure on the Cross', 'Henry Moore', and 'The River'. He was a Producer with BBC Arts and Classical Music from 1988-1999, but now works out of Oxford Television where he has a four film deal with Channel 4. He has just completed "Saturday", "Sunday" and "My Father", an intimate portrait of his father, Lord Runcie, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, which was shown on December 16th. In 2001 he will be directing a feature length documentary on The Great Fire of London, again for Channel 4. He was part of the original team that created 'The Late Show' for BBC2, and has also worked in the theatre, directing a Glasgow fashion show, Liz Lochhead's feminist review 'Nippy Sweeties', Harvey and the Wallbangers, and T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland' on the main stage of the Barbican for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has scripted three films for BBC Television, reviewed books for 'The Daily Telegraph', and has written feature articles for publications as diverse as 'The Observer', 'The Evening Standard', 'She', 'Country Living' and 'Marxism Today'. He also served on the Arts Council Literature Panel from 1990-1994. He is unashamedly forty-one, and lives in St. Albans with his wife, the Drama Producer Marilyn Imrie, and two daughters, Rosie and Charlotte. 'The Discovery of Chocolate' is his first novel, written because he finds the prospect of everlasting life far more frightening than death, and because, according to the April 2000 issue of Vogue Magazine, "It's official. People who eat chocolate live longer than those who do not." Like most people who have worked in the theatre, he has also worked as a waiter, and brought chocolate to many of the tables of the rich and famous. His experiments with chocolate in his own kitchen however, have been little short of disastrous.

'The Discovery of Chocolate is as intoxicating and addictive as the substance it describes. The novel is a triumph of inspired imagination...' Financial Times 'The Discovery of Chocolate is a sensual delight which does not take itself too seriously and leaves a lingering sweetness in its wake. More books should be like this; elegantly written, unpretentious and unashamed fun.' Joanne Harris, The Times