It is the beginning of the century, and two teams of explorers are racing across a cold, windswept, deserted land to reach the furthest point from civilisation. It is, they find, 'an awfully long way'. Johns and his men take the western route, along a rocky scree, gossiping, bickering and grumbling [...]
'It's a matter of procedure,' I explained. 'Strictly for the record. You don't get sacked from this job unless you did what Thompson did'. 'What did he do then'? 'We never mention it'. Enter the bizarre world of the bus driver, a strange but all too familiar universe in which 'the timetable' and 'th[...]
'He has no literary precedent, and he also appears to have no imitators. He mines a seam that no one else touches on, every sentence in every book having a Magnus Mills ring to it that no other writer could produce' - "Independent". In "Hark the Herald", a guest stays at an eerie guesthouse over Chr[...]
'Tam and I took hold of Mr McCrindle and lowered him into the hole, feet first. We decided to leave his cap on'. Fencers Tam, Richie and their ever-exasperated English foreman are forced to move from rural Scotland to England for work. After a disastrous start involving a botched fence and an accide[...]
'He has no literary precedent, and he also appears to have no imitators. He mines a seam that no one else touches on, every sentence in every book having a Magnus Mills ring to it that no other writer could produce' - "Independent". In "Hark the Herald", a guest stays at an eerie guesthouse over Chr[...]
The Scheme was designed to provide an honest wage for an honest day's labour. Men driving identical, rust-resistant Univans deliver Univan parts to strategically spaced warehouses. Simple, self-perpetuating and efficient, it seems destined to last forever. But when some drivers begin leaving early a[...]
Living on a windy plain in a house made entirely from tin, a recluse's quiet life is transformed by the severely critical Mary Petrie who arrives unannounced with a trunk of her belongings in tow. As a procession of new houseguests begins, our narrator is put under pressure as his previously-isolate[...]
It is the end of the summer. The tourists have already gone, and now the sun is abandoning the Lake District's damp valleys. Only a lone camper remains, enjoying the quiet. He plans to stay just long enough to prepare for a trip to the East. But then the owner of the campsite asks him to paint a fen[...]
Far away, in the ancient empire of Greater Fallowfields, things are falling apart. The imperial orchestra is presided over by a conductor who has never played a note, the clocks are changed constantly to ensure that the sun always sets at five o' clock, and the Astronomer Royal is only able to use t[...]
It is the beginning of the century, and two teams of explorers are racing across a cold, windswept, deserted land to reach the furthest point from civilisation. It is, they find, 'an awfully long way'. Johns and his men take the western route, along a rocky scree, gossiping, bickering and grumbling [...]
'The field looks completely wrong now,' she announced, one blustery afternoon. 'It's all gone out of balance.' The Great Field lies in the bend of a broad, meandering river. Bounded on three sides by water, on the fourth side it dwindles gradually into wilderness. A handful of tents are scattered f[...]
Once upon a time in Scotland, there were three men who built high-tension fences, the kind that keep animals in and humans out--or maybe the other way around. Magnus Mills gives us a wiry novel of tensile strength that proves him a writer of ferocious talent. Eerie, resonant, spare yet rich in tones[...]