This is the story of Kenneth Brill, a naive boy and equally naive young man, growing up on a farm outside London. His theatrical father is a figure of extremes: he has lost a fortune by investing in prosthetic limbs for a war that happened too late, has killed his dwarfish music hall partner in a knife throwing incident (unfortunately he discovered that he had a skull with the strength of an eggshell only after a dart had penetrated it). He has made his fortune by controlling the manure supply for the market gardens outside London, but by the beginning of the book he has seen the confiscation of his land by the government in order to allow the wartime expansion of Heathrow airport. Kenneth is an unremarkable schoolboy but he had one remarkable talent, his ability to draw. Through this he is thrown into Bohemian 30s London. This talent also leads him to become part of the allied camouflage group in North Africa, tricking the Germans through elaborate concealment. Alongside this he is introduced to sex (via life drawing classes in Soho brothels) and his own fumblings with his future wife April.

Author Biography

Gerard Woodward is the author of a number of novels, including Nourishment and an acclaimed trilogy comprising: August (shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award), I'll Go to Bed at Noon (shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize) and A Curious Earth. He was born in London in 1961, and published several prize-winning collections of poetry before turning to fiction. His collection of poetry, We Were Pedestrians, was shortlisted for the 2005 T.S.Eliot Prize. His most recent poetry collection, Seacunny, was published in 2012. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.