Crispin

I always confuse it with Crunchin.

It attempts to refute the theory, heavily subscribed in the 18th century, that one is what one eats. The protagonist, an enlightened modern man of scientific mindset, sets out to prove that eating carrots, celery, and lettuce does not make one friable. His normally sluggish speech pattern betrays him though as it becomes more pointed, more snappy, more en pointe and pithy as his diet includes more and more fresh vegetables. He comes, of course, to a tragic end, his normal phlegmatic nature twisted by the influx of raw matter.

His story is truly the Tragedy of the Leeks!

It's about a British civil servant in the 1950's and 60's, coming to terms with his homosexuality.