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Tariq Goddard was born in London and read philosophy at King's College, London, and Continental Philosophy at the University of Warwick. In 2002 his first novel, Homage to a Firing Squad, was shortlisted for the Whitbread (Costa) Book Award for First Novel and the Wodehouse-Bollinger Writing Award. He was included as one of Waterstones' 'Faces of the Future' and the novel, whose film rights were sold, was listed as one ofThe ObserverFour Debuts of the Year. In 2003, his second novel, Dynamo, was cited as one of the ten best sports novels of all time byThe Observer Sports Magazine.The Morning Rides Behind Us, his third novel, was released in 2005, and short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Fiction. In 2010, The Picture of Contented New Wealth, his fourth novel, won The Independent Publishers Award for Horror Writing, and he was awarded a development grant by The Royal Literary Fund.The Message, published in 2011 and set in a fictional African state, received Silver at the 2012 Independent Publishers Award for Literary Fiction. In 2007, Goddard began the imprint Zero Books. In 2014, he and his co-founders left Zero Books and started Repeater Books. He lives on a farm in Wiltshire with his wife and children where he is writing his seventh novel, High John The Conqueror.
This is a wonderfully in-depth journey into the lives of a remarkable family led by Petula, the ultimate, ruthless matriarch. It is not just a journey in time, with family events leading to a compelling, affectionate and dramatic denouement, but a journey in prose, too. Because every sentence is a delight to read, crafted with an intricate yet intuitive design that makes the words themselves every bit as compelling as the plot. For this excellent reason, every sentence deserves to be savored and many lingered over for their originality, inner meaning and insights into this wonderfully dysfunctional family. Its portrayal of country life has an enviable authenticity which means it is surely cut from real life. But it is sculpted to have a special significance and theme that raises it above ordinary reality. It is the story of a family, dark, deep, funny and, above all, likeable. I m missing Petula and her children already. Pat Mills, creator of 2000 AD A vast, immersive family saga, this book insists on the mud in blood, the wood in flesh - the astounding inextricability of the human animal from the earth in which it was formed. Goddard shows us that blood-relations are exactly that - bloody. This is nature writing at its most intensely observed, and ever mindful of our position within the colossal movements of the world. The 'necessity' of the title is inarguable. Niall Griffiths, author of Stump: A Novel
