Her spare prose and dialogue give a period flavour without the dread excesses of gadzookery.

Of course, sometimes the hairdryer treatment can be taken with a pinch of salt.

Hey, if you guys get the munchies, there's helluv candy in the cupboard.

This is the sort of drinking that Anna Hazare fought to eradicate from Ralegan Siddhi, as Colonel Phatak explained, after I joked about an army man needing his evening peg of whisky before dinner.