<p>Situated on London's Foster Lane, there is a quintessentially Georgian, redbrick house with a green door bearing the sign trencoms, 1662. It's the home of the Trencom family's cheese store, a generational establishment begun by Humphrey Trencom that now, 303 years later, is run by Edward Trencom. Quaint though it may seem, it bears witness to a strange occurrence of "accidents" that seem to befall every generation of the curd-loving family.…<br> Edward Trencom has bumbled through life, relying on his trusty nose to turn the family cheese shop into the most celebrated <i>fromagerie</i> in England. This was no ordinary nose, but one long, aquiline, and furnishing the trademark circular bump over the bridge---the very same nose bestowed on all the Trencom men. It was extraordinary, able to discern the composition, maturity, and quality of cheese---and the Trencom noses had sniffed, whiffed, and judged the very best cheeses of the world.<br> But on an ordinary day, Edward's world is turned upside down when he stumbles across a crate of family papers. To his horror, he discovers that nine previous generations of his family have come to sticky ends because of their noses. When he investigates---despite his grandfather's caveat never to look into the origin of his nose---Edward finds himself caught up in a Byzantine riddle to which there is no obvious answer. And like his ill-fated ancestors, he is hunted down by rival forces whose identity and purpose remain a total mystery.<br> Trapped between the mad, the bad, and a cheese to die for, Edward Trencom's nose must make a choice---and for the last nine generations it has made the catastrophically wrong decision.<br> Giles Milton's deliciously comic debut novel is a mouthwatering blend of Tom Sharpe and P. G. Wodehouse. From the noble Roquefort to the piquant <i>Èpoisses,</i> every page is permeated by the pungent odor of cheese.<br><br>Praise for Giles Milton:<br><br>"He has a rare ability---a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems."<br>---Simon Winchester, <i>The</i> <i>Boston Globe </i><br><br>"Milton spins a fascinating tale. . . . Exuberantly eccentric characters stride the pages."<br>---<i>Time</i> magazine on <i>Nathaniel's Nutmeg</i><br><br>"In an exceptionally pungent, amusing, and accessible historical account, Giles Milton brings readers right into the midst of these colonists and their daunting American adventure."<br>--- Janet Maslin, <i>The New York Times,</i> on <i>Big Chief Elizabeth</i></p> Read Less