But for two West Yorkshire policemen - contemplating a cache of 27 undelivered missives, retrieved from a back alley behind the hairdresser's in Skipton - it's also a job of work.
Reading other people’s letters is always a guilty pleasure. From erotic encounters behind clothing racks to a kleptomaniac with his organs on the wrong side, this daring and gifted writer never fails to surprise us, entertain us, and make us think.From the award-winning author of Darkmans comes a comic epistolary novel of startling originality and wit. It takes young Carrie twenty one years and a chance meeting with an eighty three year old widow to realize she fell victim to her husband’s ‘Three Button Trick.’ The main character in ‘Wesley’ must work through his troubled childhood in a series of episodes involving mas*ses of eels, an imaginary friend named Joy, and an unmentionable incident with an emu owl. Now nineteen of her finest short stories have been complied into one brilliant, delightful readable volume. The third of Nicola Barker’s narratives of the Thames Gateway, Darkmans is an epic novel of startling originality.Īudacious, original, clever, poignant these are just a few words that describe the writing of Nicola Barker, a talented, award winning author whose work brings to mind Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, and Maragaret Atwood. And the main character? The past, which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark quite unspeakable into its ear. It’s also a book about invasion, obsession, displacement and possession, about comedy, art, prescription drugs and chiropody.
If History is just a sick joke which keeps on repeating itself, then who exactly might be telling it, and why? Could it be John Scogin, Edward IV’s infamous court jester, whose favorite pastime was to burn people alive for a laugh? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, Henry VIII’s physician, who kindly wrote John Scogin’s biography? Or could it be a tiny Kurd called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of uh salad? Or a beautiful, bulimic harpy with ridiculously weak bones? Or a man who guards Beckley Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier?ĭarkmans is a very modern book, set in Ashford a ridiculously modern town, about two very old fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Darkmans is an exhilarating, extraordinary examination of the ways in which history can play jokes on us all…
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