'Herodotus is indeed an unusual cat. As with most felines he was born with nine lives, though he has done his best to reduce this number. Sometimes I will baste a vole for him, or grill a dogfish, while he relates his adventures with a slow languid wink in the smoky light of the charcoal ovens. Often we will share a bottle of Chablis or dip our tongues into the sherry syllabub and talk about old times and bewail a world that has changed far too much.'The tales contained within Worming the Harpy and other Bitter Pills are set in a surreal world of nightmares all too closely identifiable with real life. If The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was retouched by Ralph Steadman, with The Rolling Stones 'Sympathy for the Devil' as a soundtrack, you would have only the slightest inkling of the scintillating and horrific world conjured by Rhys Hughes.