"The Forensic Records Society", by Magnus Mills

Novel, 2017

A book, like others by the author, in which a scene is set - quite an odd, quirky but essentially familiar, humdrum scene - and then nothing really seems to happen in quite brisk, glorious fashion. The establishment, growth and fall of different shades of seven inch vinyl appreciation and their nuances and power struggles within and between give this novel more of an allegorical feel than some of its predecessors. This is glorious stuff indeed; easy, odd, perplexing in places and, for all its inbuilt mundanity, hugely entertaining.

"The Field of the Cloth of Gold", by Magnus Mills

Novel, 2015

Another super-real world beautifully crafted from the everyday, in which seemingly innocuous comings and goings suggest seismic undercurrents. This time, Mills sets his action in a field at an unspecified time and looks at the inter-relations of different tribes and individuals as they settle down and get on with each other, or fail to do so. The end of the book, after the hints, suggestions and actions preceding it, is wonderfully underplayed but convincingly uneasy. A real submersive, subversive delight.