Northern girl Harriet lives and works on a London estate which is a battleground between the white working class plus the immigrants versus the newly arrived middle class focaccia-eaters.Unhappy and overweight, she hires a personal trainer who lures her into joining the martial arts class he runs. There she learns the regime of the completely phoney martial arts ''master'' and embarks on a spiritual and literal journey which leads her to a hotel opposite the railway station at Crewe, the ''Weeping Women Hotel''. This is Alexei Sayle''s best work to date - good plot, great characters plus his trademark anarchic black humour.