Editions

Page /
100%
  1. Home
  2. Fiction Books
  3. Human Croquet
Human Croquet

Human Croquet

Once it had been the great forest of Lythe - a vast and impenetrable thicket of green.And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor, visited once by the great Gloriana herself.

But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees.The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all.

But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpège and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

Reviews

  • Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns

    Observer

  • Huge, exhilarating, loving and detailed eruption of a novel...an utterly intoxicating display of novelistic elan...big and joyous, literary and accessible...storytelling at its buoyant best

    The Scotsman

  • Wonderfully eloquent and forceful Kate Atkinson goes at the same pace in her second novel as she did in her first...welcome back, wild north-easter...brilliant and engrossing

    Evening Standard

  • Vivid and intriguing...fizzles and crackles along...a tour de force

    Independent

  • Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this is an exquisitely written, literary novel that reads as compellingly as any thriller

    Cosmopolitan

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is one of the world's foremost novelists. She won the Costa Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prize-winning novels set around the Second World War are Life After Life, now an acclaimed BBC TV series starring Thomasin McKenzie, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award) and Transcription. Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog, became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Jackson Brodie later returned in the novel Big Sky. Her new novel, Shrines of Gaiety, is published in September 2022.

Kate Atkinson

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/company/BigSkyannouncement-1296.png

News

Kate Atkinson returns with Big Sky, a new Jackson Brodie novel

The first Jackson Brodie mystery since 2010's Started Early, Took My Dog, Big Sky will be published on 18 June 2019.
/content/dam/prh/articles/company/Transworld_KateAtkinson_cEuanMyles_banner.png

Transcription, a new novel from Kate Atkinson, to be published in September 2018
/content/dam/prh/articles/archive/kate-atkinson-a-god-in-ruins-extract-960x450.jpg

Extracts

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

A God in Ruins is the follow-up to Kate Atkinson’s Costa Novel Award-winning Life After Life. In this extract from chapter one, we join Teddy before he embarks on his final flight as a WW2 bomber, and return to Sylvie’s beloved Fox Corner, the setting for Teddy and Ursula’s childhood

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies to make our website work. If you click 'Accept All’ we will use cookies to understand how you use our services and to show you personalised advertising and other content. You can change your cookie settings by clicking 'Manage Cookies'. For more information please see our Cookie Policy

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.