Over the years, I’ve read all of Robert Rankin’s books, and tried to review most of them. I say “tried”, because Mister Rankin’s books are sort of non-reviewable. The average review comes in three parts, what happens in the book, how well it was done, and whether it was any good. When reviewing a Rankin book, the last part is always simple, and always the same: yes, it’s good. The first and second parts, however, are really, really tough… What happens in this book? I’m not sure, exactly, but I’ll give it a go. Rankin stalwarts Jim Pooley and John Omally become involved with a rock group who’s music has the power to change the world. Another old character, Soap Distant, returns from his travels (waaay to complicated to get into here) to find that the world is not as he recalls it: the Queen was assassinated years ago, John Lennon survived the shooting in 1980, Elvis didn’t die on the toilet, and so on. Someone, he suspects, has been messing around with time travel. Meanwhile, Norman from the corner shop decides that to help Jim finally win his six-horse accumulator, he’s going to genetically engineer the world’s fastest racehorse. Okay, I have to stop there, because to go any further without telling you the whole story would not be possible. How well was it done? Not sure about that one, either… There’s no one on Earth who writes like Robert Rankin. Each chapter is prefaced by a poem, usually quite a witty one, which may or may not have anything to do with the coming chapter, or the previous chapter, or a different book… To get the most out of Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls you’ll have to have read all of his earlier books. Actually, to be accurate, you’ll have to have read all of his future books as well (in Rankin’s very first novel, The Antipope, there’s a single-line reference to a book that didn’t appear until about twelve years later). However, the book should still be enjoyable to Rankin neophytes: as with most of the others, it’s a stand-alone novel and doesn’t require a good deal of knowledge about the characters and setting. And is it good? Yes! Very definitely. It’s a complex novel, though, and may not be to everyone’s taste. Like most of Robert Rankin’s other books, it’s not something through which you can lightly breeze. But the madcap humour, brilliantly obscure characterisation and abundance of daft puns and willy jokes should be enough to keep most people entertained. Reviewed by Michael Carroll | 
