King of the badgers

Hensher, P (2011) King of the badgers. Fourth Estate, London. ISBN 9780007301331

Abstract

Philip Hensher brings us another slice of contemporary life, this time the peaceful civility and spiralling paranoia of a small English town. Hanmouth, situated where the river Hand flows into the Bristol channel, is usually quiet and undisturbed. But it becomes the centre of national attention when an eight-year-old girl vanishes. This tragic event serves to expose the range of segregated existences in the town, as spectrums of class, wealth and lifestyle are blurred in the investigation. Behind Hanmouth's closed doors and pastoral facade, the extraordinary individual lives of the community are laid bare. The undisclosed passions of a quiet international aid worker are set against his wife, seemingly a paragon of virtue to the outside world; a recently-widowed old woman tells a story that details her late discovery of sexual gratification; and the Bears have a memorable party. As the search for the missing girl continues, the case is made for increased surveillance, and old notions of privacy begin to crack. King of the Badgers is a powerful study of the vital importance of individuality and the increasingly intrusive hand of political powers. Like its predecessor, it is another devastating -- but frequently very funny -- portrait of England from one of this country's finest novelists.

Item Type:	Book
Divisions:	School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Date Deposited:	12 Feb 2013 10:14
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2022 17:03
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/1362

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