Having pursued a conventional enough path through school and university, Jason Webster was all set to enter the world of academe as a profession. But when his aloof Florentine girlfriend of some years dumped him unceremoniously, he found himself at a crossroads.

"The music started: two guitarists beating out more "Alboreas. "The women took turns to dance in a frenzy, each trying to outdo the other. Deep Song always sings in the night, Lorca had written. It was the credo of the flamenco: a rejection of the mundane, the ordinary, the life of the everyday man, embracing, rather, an extreme world extreme passions, extreme feelings, the extremes of life and death. And it was a way of life I wanted to believe in its excitement, its danger, the affirmation it gave you that you were different, and alive.
"Destined for a sedate and predictable life in...