Cuddy

Benjamin Myers

From Shelf: Wish list

**Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2023** **Winner of the Winston Graham Historical Prize** **Chosen as a book of the year 2023 by The Times, Guardian, Telegraph and New Statesman** 'An epic the north has long deserved' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A sensational piece of storytelling ... A singular and significant achievement' GUARDIAN 'Marvellous, artful, enchanted' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Cements Myers's standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers' I NEWS The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage - their dreams, desires, connections and communities.