Simon Dale has just been sacked from his exciting if short-lived job at the UNBUA, the United Nations Bureau of Uncommon Affairs. He has returned to his father’s house in rural Oxfordshire, where he has spent the last four weeks sulking. He has also been learning more about the fascinating world of uncommons. From a book. That’s probably the main reason he’s in such a depressed mood—he would have preferred to study these things at his handsome ex-boss’s side.