Description

Cryptographer Q prepares for a new life on Bodmin Moor and discovers what really matters to him.

Q’s work as a quantum cryptographer has led him to believe a crisis is imminent for civilisation and he’s looking for somewhere to ride out what’s ahead. He buys a ruined farmhouse on Bodmin Moor and begins turning it into a refuge.

Cornwall does not offer simple escape. The moor brings him into contact with reintroduced lynxes and aurochs, local eccentrics, an Arthurian knight and a watchful holy man. All while Q negotiates his relationships with his children, his ex-wife and the beguiling Eva. As our systems of electronic control falter, Q learns that survival may depend as much on community, love and humour as on preparation.

Shortlisted for the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, Light Over Liskeard is a warm, wry literary novel about technological collapse, rural life, family, second chances and what matters when the future is uncertain.

‘Beguiling’ Observer
‘A feelgood story about friendship and love – vintage de Bernieres’ Daily Mirror
‘A wonder… wry, wise’ Daily Mail
‘Heaps of old-fashioned adventure’ The Times

Publisher Review

Beguiling…Set in a jollier dystopia than the norm, it tells the tale of “Q”, a cryptographer who takes refuge from the madding crowd in Cornwall * Observer * Marked by de Bernieres’ customary light touch and wry humour…This quirky novel is timely… a feelgood story about friendship and love – vintage de Bernieres. * Daily Mirror * A knockabout satire with twists aplenty * Mail on Sunday * A wonder worthy of Wyndham…wry, wise * Daily Mail * Heaps of old-fashioned adventure * The Times *