Breakfast on Pluto

Conceived in a moment of mad passion by a randy Irish priest and his temporary housekeeper — and abandoned on a doorstep in a Rinso box as an infant — her ladyship “Pussy” (né Patrick) Braden grew up fabulous and escaped tiny Tyreelin, Ireland, to start life anew in London. In blousy tops and satin miniskirts she plies her trade as a transvestite rent boy on Picadilly’s Meat Rack, risking life and limb among the city’s flotsam and jetsam. But it is the 1970s, and fear haunts the streets of London and Belfast — and as radioactive history approaches critical mass, the coming explosion of violence and tragedy may well blow Pussy’s fragile soul asunder.