by Magnus Mills
‘A British writer to be treasured’
Independent on Sunday
‘An enjoyable novel by a truly original writer’
Sunday Times
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Three to See the King
‘Magnus Mills is a genius’ Big Issue
‘Marvellous … a delicious ambiguity, a parable which is both loaded and ingenious’ Independent
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-isolated existence is turned on its head and he is forced to choose between a solitary life and joining the mass exodus of his neighbours…
‘Pythonesque … Quirky, deadpan and quietly unhinged’ Scotsman
‘Magnus Mills goes from strength to strength…Three to See the King develops his idiosyncratic vision with wry intelligence and wit’ Spectator
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Screwtop Thompson
‘As the collection progresses, its humour evolves from a restrained arched eyebrow to a warm guffaw’ Sunday Times
A guest stays at an eerie guesthouse over Christmas without encountering any other residents, despite constant reassurance from the landlord that he would see them if only he arrived for breakfast slightly earlier; a man arrives home to find the family house under siege, with his mother armed, dangerous and firing at the police with a shotgun; rivalry between three cousins over a faulty toy gets out of hand as the cousins unwittingly imitate the toy they’re fighting over…
Eleven stories transport the reader into the strangely familiar and utterly surreal world of Magnus Mills and confirm him as one of the best comic writers of our time.
‘Mills’s fictional universe is entirely unlike anyone else’s going ... Brilliant!’ Dazed & Confused
‘These eleven vignettes are perfectly distilled to their deadpan essences … they’ll stay with you longer than many books ten times the size’ Metro
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A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In
‘The wonderful thing about the outlandish world of Magnus Mills is that it always sounds familiar’ Guardian
‘Quirky, curious and very funny – a Magnus opus from the master of idiosyncratic peculiarity’ Ben Schott
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 cabinet can take tea in the library as the sun sets, the Astronomer Royal is only able to use the imperial telescope when he can find a sixpence to put in its slot, and everyone lives on tick. But while the kingdom drifts, awaiting the return of the absentee emperor, a ‘cruel bird’ is getting closer.
‘A beautiful, singular book: funny and acutely observed’ Independent on Sunday
‘An enchantingly Kafkaesque/philosophical fairy tale … a noel of considerable depth and intellect’ Sunday Times
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www.bloomsbury.com/magnusmills
By the Same Author
Novels
The Restraint of Beasts
All Quiet on the Orient Express
The Scheme for Full Employment
Three to See the King
Explorers of the New Century
The Maintenance of Headway
A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In
Stories
Once in a Blue Moon
Only When the Sun Shines Brightly
Screwtop Thompson and Other Tales
Bloomsbury Publishing
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First published in Great Britain 2015
This electronic edition published 2015
© Magnus Mills, 2015
Magnus Mills has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination
and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise
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No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from
action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4088-6002-1
PB: 978-1-4088-6004-5
ePub: 978-1-4088-6003-8
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