James O'Neill

An essay in obsession came from James O'Neill in Odour, in which Tim McInnerny's high-handed cardiologist went to pieces as an unidentifiable smell seemed to follow him around. We were told it is a recognised condition (phantosmia) caused by brain seizures and other diseases but here seemed more of an obsessive-compulsive disorder triggered by guilt over his appalling treatment of a former lover and student. The author avoided having to write a denouement by getting his surgeon to throw himself off a roof. However, disappointment was avoided by McInnerny's intense depiction of a loathsome man who somehow located his own conscience.