The Maintenance of Headway - Hardcover

Mills, Magnus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1408800357 ISBN 13: 9781408800355

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2009

Synopsis

'A demented, deadpan comic wonder' Thomas Pynchon

About this title

Review:

`Deeply bizarre, occasionally menacing and often funny ... It's real life, but not quite realism, and strangely brilliant'
--The Times

`Anyone who has wondered why buses arrive either in gangs or not at all should find the answer in Mill's delightful satire about the least reliable forms of public transport ... This novel should be required reading for those in charge of our chaotic public transport system'
--Daily Mail

Synopsis:

'It's a matter of procedure,' I explained. 'Strictly for the record. You don't get sacked from this job unless you did what Thompson did.' 'What did he do then?' 'We never mention it.' In Magnus Mills' brilliant short novel he transports us into the bizarre world of the bus drivers who take us to work, to the supermarket, to the match and home again. It is a strange but all too real universe in which 'the timetable' and 'maintenance of headway' are sacred, but where the routes can change with the click of an inspector's fingers and the helpless passengers are secondary. The journey from the Southern Outpost to the Arch, the Circus and the Cross will seem as familiar as your regular route, but then Magnus Mills shows you the almost religious fervour which lies behind it, and how it is fine to be a little bit late but utterly unforgivable to be a moment early. 'To write one unique book is a rare achievement. The ability to produce several is truly special.' Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1408800357
• ISBN 13: 9781408800355
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160