Human Croquet

The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson.The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson.'Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns' ObserverOnce it had been the great forest of Lythe. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor.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, Arp ge and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

“"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" -Penelope Fitzgerald,Evening Standart "Huge, exhilarating, loving and detailed eruption of a novel...an utterly intoxicating display of novelistic elan...big and joyous, literary and accessible...storytelling at it buoyant best" -The Scotsman "Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns" -Cressida Connolly,Observer "Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this is an exquisitely written, literary novel that reads as compellingly as any thriller." --Cosmopolitan”

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
A stunner of a second novel...a gutsy book, wrenched from the heart and written with tremendous force, immersing you in its strange, eccentric world Marie Claire
The quirky imagination, subversive humour and instinct for domestic chaos that Atkinson displayed in her first novel...are rampantly evident again Publishers Weekly

Kate Atkinson is one of the world's foremost novelists. She won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum- Human Croquet was her second novel. Her three critically lauded and prizewinning novels set around World War II are Life After Life, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award), and Transcription. She has also written five bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, the latest of which is Big Sky.Kate Atkinson was appointed MBE for services to literature in 2011.

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, Arp

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