Bloomsbury have used Anna Wray's cover design for Magnus Mills's A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In
I read the book recently and reviewed it elsewhere, but haven't talked about it here on the blog; seeing the calendar has prompted me to put that right, so here's a bit about it:
It's set in the Empire of Greater Fallowfields where despite the appointment of a new head of state - who has yet to actually put in an appearance - things are falling apart. Members of the cabinet meet and try to get on with their jobs, but they are a sorry bunch, either having no knowledge of the departments they are required to oversee or being hamstrung by 'regulations' and endemic inefficiency. The Astronomer Royal needs a supply of sixpences to get the observatory telescope to work, the Principal Composer knows nothing about music, and the Comptroller for the Admiralty bemoans the lack of ships, but it's not just the Empire's shaky infrastructure which is putting it at risk, there's a neighbouring state intent on progress and expansion and it has designs on Greater Fallowfields ...
This is the first of Magnus Mills's novels that I've read and I found it very engaging. It has a dry and deadpan humour and a plot which moves in ever decreasing circles, its tropes carrying both characters and reader further into its eccentric Ruritanian world of feudalism, ritual (hence the post title, though there's more to that than meets the eye) and complacency. It's both a fairytale of the absurd and an astute political satire, and as such is thought-provoking and fun; very original and nicely surreal.
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