The Philosopher's Apprentice

James Morrow

After crashing and burning during his PhD viva, Mason Ambrose is offered a large amount of money to come to the Isla de Sangre to instruct the daughter of wealthy Edwina Sabachtani. He is to use his knowledge as a philosopher to instil a conscience, a moral compass, in Edwina's daughter Londa following a diving accident which has supposedly destroyed her sense of right and wrong. Mason happily instructs her in schools of thought, from the stoics to the epicureans. But it is when he introduces her to the Beatitudes that the seeds of a rampaging sense of justice are sown and Londa becomes determined that the meek really shall inherit the earth! She becomes something of a 'celebrity saint' but then she takes her crusade too far, kidnapping a boat full of wealthy industrialists.

A funny, tongue in cheek but also thought-provoking novel from the author of THE LAST WITCHFINDER that asks important questions about what makes us human and how we makes choices in a complex world.