This novel announces itself as the first in a 100-book series of histories, the start of "an encyclopedic compendium of everything in the world gathered together in one place." Author (and filmmaker) Peter Greenaway doesn't want to write them all: the idea is to set up a motley collection of academics, all with vested special interests, all determined to stave off forgetfulness and mortality, and have them substantiate the truism that "there is no such thing as history, there are only historians." Among the 99 other proposed titles are the stories of toys, games, cripples, towers, conceptions, diseases, maps, tics, red hats, adulteries, journeys to the sea, languages, names, gardens, acts of violence, pricks, griefs and ghosts. Greenaway's books include Nightwatching and Rosa, and his films include Prospero's Books, The Belly of an Architect, and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover.