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Author: Chesterton, G K

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 4 July 2024 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin Classics) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 192 pages
200 x 130 x 15 | 146g

London, 1984. England has given up on democracy and selects its rulers by lottery. This time it is the turn of clerk Auberon Quin, a prankster who decrees that each borough of London become an independent mediaeval state, complete with costumes and coats of arms. The citizens bear his joke with varying levels of patience – until Adam Wayne, the intractable Provost of Notting Hill, sword in hand, takes the game far too seriously.

First published in 1904, G. K. Chesterton’s deliriously eccentric debut novel is a wild, topsy-turvy satire on a land ruled by fools.