'Intricate and crisp, witty and solemn: a book with special and dangerous properties' Hilary Mantel
The town of Rotherweird stands alone - there are no guidebooks, despite the fascinating and diverse architectural styles cramming the narrow streets, the avant garde science and offbeat customs. Cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I, Rotherweird's independence is subject to one disturbing condition: nobody, but nobody, studies the town or its history.
For beneath the enchanting surface lurks a secret so dark that it must never be rediscovered, still less reused.
But secrets have a way of leaking out.
Two inquisitive outsiders have arrived: Jonah Oblong, to teach modern history at Rotherweird School (nothing local and nothing before 1800), and the sinister billionaire Sir Veronal Slickstone, who has somehow got permission to renovate the town's long-derelict Manor House.
Slickstone and Oblong, though driven by conflicting motives, both strive to connect past and present, until they and their allies are drawn into a race against time - and each other. The consequences will be lethal and apocalyptic.
Welcome to Rotherweird!
A twisted, arcane murder-mystery with shades of Hope Mirrlees, Ben Aaronovitch, Mervyn Peake and Edward Gorey at their disturbing best.
'Baroque, Byzantine and beautiful - not to mention bold' M.R. Carey
'Compelling . . . the love child of Gormenghast and Hogwarts' Guardian
"Baroque, Byzantine and beautiful--not to mention bold. An enthralling puzzle picture of a book" --M. R. Carey, author of the best-selling The Girl With All the Gifts
"Compelling... the love child of Gormenghast and Hogwarts." --The Guardian
1558: Twelve children, gifted far beyond their years, are banished by their Tudor queen to the town of Rotherweird. Some say they are the Golden Generation; some say the devil's spawn. But everyone knows they are to be revered--and feared.
Four and a half centuries later, cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I and still bound by its ancient laws, Rotherweird's independence is subject to one disturbing condition: no one, but no one studies the town or its history.
Then an Outsider arrives, a man of unparalleled wealth and power, enough to buy the whole of Rotherweird--deeply buried secrets and all...
Hugely entertaining . . . this novel is
a remarkable achievement. It's also
extremely funny, in
a typically British sort of way
