The Restraint of Beasts

‘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 accidental murder, the three move to a damp caravan in Upper Bowland and soon find themselves in direct competition with the sinister Hall Brothers whose business enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering and sausage-making. “The Restraint of Beasts” introduced readers to the now much-loved unique voice of Magnus Mills and his surreally comic world.

Reviews of The Restraint of Beasts

'A heaving cauldron of black humour … You'll never look at a stretch of high-tensile agricultural fencing in quite the same way ever again' Time Out 'With a tone that wavers as unsettlingly between Ken Loach and Franz Kafka as its locale switches from Scotland to England, Magnus Mill's first novel is a work of rare originality and power … It is very, very good' Independent 'Extremely unusual, finely crafted and funny' Observer 'Unpretentious, comic and intelligent' Daily Telegraph