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Useful Idiots

Useful Idiots

Set in a highly realistic dystopic future, where the lowlands of Britain are flooded, this beautifully realised novel explores a world where archaeology is controlled for fear of social unrest. One bleak morning, a storm across the North Sea unveils a human skull, which leads to a series of events that changes the lives of those involved. Merrick, a young graduate archaeology student becomes embroiled in the task of discovering the origins of the skull. His interest in this bizarre case brings him into contact with the Inglish, a remnant tribe eking out an existence on the edge of Europe. In this wildly progressive new world, it is they who will be affected the most. This is a compelling vision of England as it could be in the not-so-distant future.

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About the Author

Jan Mark

Jan Mark was born in Welwyn, Hertfordshire in 1943. She grew up in North London and Kent. She was educated at the Ashford County Grammar School and the Canterbury College of Art. She became a teacher at a North Kent secondary school and started writing in 1974. In the early 1980s Jan became Writer in Residence in the education department of the Oxford Polytechnic, now called Oxford Brookes University, and went on to write over 50 novels, plays and short stories. She is best known for her children's books and won the Carnegie Medal in 1976 for Thunder and Lightnings and for Handles in 1983. She died in 2006.

Jan Mark

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