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ABOUT THE BOOK

The narrator, Dennis Beaver, son of 'the last real Londoner to be hanged for murder', is born and raised in Brookgate, an inner London area rich in multi-layered histories and resonances. He grows to adulthood streetwise and savvy, and deeply attached to his beautiful, brilliant cousin Rosie Beck with whom he has an almost telepathic empathy. But neither Dennis nor Rosie can foresee the inexorable rise of John Barbican Begg, the financial genius and unscrupulous schemer who, despite their resistance, latches lamprey-like onto their lives. As Dennis pursues a dual career as underground rock guitarist and intrepid photojournalist and Rosie devotes her intelligence and energies to helping the poor of the world, Barbican builds a commercial empire whose unprecedented wealth and power dwarfs that of most nation states. Against a the backdrop of a world in turmoil, from Paris to Rwanda, from New York to Kosovo, Rosie, Dennis and Barbican follow their different paths, drawing towards s spectacular joint resolution of their destinies at one of the nodal points of the Old World.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Moorcock was a central figure in the 'alternative' culture of the sixties and seventies, performing with his own band, The Deep Fix and with Hawkwind. He has written many novels, won the Guardian Fiction Award for The Conditions of Muzak and was short-listed for the Whitbread Prize for Mother London. In recent years he has achieved an international reputation and is recognised as a major contemporary novelist. A long-time resident of London, he now lives near Austin, Texas, U.S. with his wife.

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