Description

‘Exquisitely written and structurally bold … a deeply impressive novel’ Eva Dolan, author of This Is How It Ends

Selected for TLS Summer Books 2023

Arthur and Gwen married young. Twenty years on, Gwen’s got it all: wealth, beauty, a famous husband who’s the founder of Britain’s most successful tech company, stables full of horses, millions of followers on Instagram, an unstable lover, a wayward son, a hoard of secrets, an aching heart, and a cyberstalking blackmailer who calls himself The Invisible Knight.

As the Wiltshire town of Abury prepares to celebrate the fortieth birthday of its favourite son, Morgan, Gwen’s former best friend, is on her way back to Abury after two decades away, keen to expose Abury’s long buried secrets and hellbent on revenge.

An inventive, magisterial reworking of Britain’s greatest myth, Bliss & Blunder is a heartrending novel of power, friendship and betrayal.

Publisher Review

Bliss and Blunder, like the questing beast of legend, is many things at once; epic, sprawling yet intricate, it's a novel of action and intimacy, an astute critique of our technological era, a fitting homage to Arthurian myth, and a moving, highly original story in its own right. -- Roisin Kiberd, author of The Disconnect Praise for Before the Ruins: 'Engrossing, beguiling, and with an undertow of menace, Before the Ruins is a masterly debut from a richly talented author.' -- Sarah Waters Jaw-droppingly brilliant writing -- Marian Keyes Before the Ruins, Victoria Gosling's stunner of a debut novel, is rich with mystery and moral disorder. It put me in mind of Edward St. Aubyn and Donna Tart; dark, fierce, and totally addictive. -- Valerie Martin