Kavi Naidu is a great poet in the tradition of Wordsworth and Shelley (well, he thinks so, anyway). Pompous, sentimental and hell-bent on finding literary fame and romantic glory, he is catapulted from his humdrum routine into the heady distractions of London.

Urged on by his mother, Kavi sets out to win the prestigious Commonwealth Poetry Prize – but arriving in London, he is beset by people who bewilder him, and over everything looms Seth, India’s most celebrated writer, Kavi’s nemesis for many years. Failing to see the pitfalls all around, he stumbles from muddle to faux pas to disaster.

Suffused with warm, sly humour and a sharp eye for human failings, Something Black in the Lentil Soup is an irreverent portrayal of three parallel cultures – British, Indian and British-Indian – and an entertaining tale of an innocent abroad.