Heavily influenced by his alter ego Quentin Crisp, seasoned raconteur Robert Inston charts family, career, education and domestic nightmares - aspects of how their lives converged and where they parted. Like Quentin, a lack of life's domestic skills and an abandonment of normal conventions has characterised Robert's life. He describes escapes from personal and professional disasters and how it is possible to be happy in the direst of circumstances. As Quentin said: 'I am not a dropout: I was never in.' Is Quentin's 'essence of happiness' still relevant to the way we live now?