Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

"Lucien didn't remember seeing him leave. He didn't remember the girl leaving, or going on to school, or his lessons from Monsieur Renoir. He didn't remember anything that happened for the next year, and when he did remember he was a year older, Monsieur Pissarro had painted his portrait, and Minette, the love of his young life, was dead from fever."

Let me commence by professing my love for the works of Christopher Moore, having first been introduced to his delights through "Bloodsucking Fiends". My favourite to date would have to be "Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal", which was just a complete crack up from cover to cover and decidedly irreverent.

Sacre Bleu explores the work of a fiendish colour man, a mysterious muse and the French ( and at least one dutch) masters in late 19th Century Paris. The Protagonist baker/artist Lucien is an appealing chap with a rather scary mother and some infamous friends and much of the action takes place in Toulouse Lautrec's haunts of bordellos and bars.

Tongue in cheek as ever - don't get me started on the colour man's method of scaring the help, nor the donkey's - this is a delightfully fantastic read boasting some fabulous artworks scattered within. My edition was complete with pictures!

For more info on the author you can check out his facebook page on https://www.facebook.com/theauthorguy including a delightfully large graphic of the cover art which I found very appealing.

"Blue, blue my love is blue" as the song goes and I loved this 5 out of 5. Pour me some more absinthe and thank the lord no one dies of syphilis anymore.