Shane Connaughton: 2 books

‘The small room was thick with dark blue uniforms. Bull’s wool the men called the material. Silver buttons. Black boots. Caps. Batons holstered in shiny black leather cylinders. Handcuffs hanging from coat hooks, the keys dangling on thick green ribbon. Dusty files on shelves. Shiny whistles on...

A London house. A warren of rooms. The tenants refuse to budge. A comic novel about a tragic, and grotesque world presided over by an elderly showman with delusional plans about the future. A Captain Ahab in an attic flat caring for a younger woman, he tries to enlist the help of another tenant. This...