ABOUT
THE BOOK

Once the great forest of Lythe was a vast impenetrable thicket of green, with a mystery in the very heart of the trees. Here lived the Fairfaxes, at Fairfax Manor, once visited by the great Queen Elizabeth I herself. But over the long years the forest has been destroyed until all that is left is Boscombe Woods and the great Lady Oak. The Fairfaxes too have dwindled, now living in “Arden”, at the end of Hawthorn Close. The Fairfaxes are the family at the centre of Human Croquet; Vinny, the aunt from hell; Gordon, returned after seven years with fat Debbie, who shares her one brain cell with a poodle; Charles, the acne-scarred Lost Boy, and Isobel, to whom this story belongs. Human Croquet is an audacious blend of history, comedy and tragedy, distilled through the lives of an eccentric urban family. Kate Atkinson’s first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, was nominated for the 1997 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and won the Whitbread Prize.