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Cuddy: Winner of the 2023 Goldsmiths Prize

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It's bold, imaginative and I could've read the story of Cuddy's bones being carried around for many more pages! It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24. The voice of the saint remains with us throughout, there to receive the prayers of those who believe in his legend and longevity.

A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year. I think this is the reaction many readers will have, as every different style Myers uses is going to appeal to different people. And the way that certain characters (eg an owl-eyed boy) and certain motifs (eg wild garlic) echo through the ages makes the sum greater than its sometimes flawed parts. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Michael’s elegiac, impassioned narrative, with its layered connections back to earlier chapters, sets the seal on a novel that has far more to say about who we are as a nation, where we came from and where we are headed than any number of more self-consciously political “state of England” novels.I found it a little hard to get going with reading this as the mix of styles and forms used to move through the vast period of history covered in this retelling of the story and legacy of Saint Cuthbert from Lindisfarne to Dunhelm and Durham of today, was challenging- the last section is largely contemporary and very touching, and caused me to go back and re-read the earlier sections, and realise what an amazing success this book is - intentionally fitting form to content over the centuries. I loved what Myers was trying to do here and show how history gets warped and changed by us and our stories over the years. The stench of it is the perfume of bus stations everywhere; the desperate reek of transience at the crossroads of intoxicated.

Breaking the book up into sections, each one a different style, is an interesting concept but badly executed poetry and some of the worst "Scottish" dialogue I've ever read in a small play that forms the Interlude stops me from enjoying it. I read Book I with enthusiasm, its verse-like format and fragments of historical detail building a picture of his 10th-century followers ("this colourful caravan of committed Cuddy acolytes / this coffin-carrying cult, forever on the flit, / forever making camp and breaking camp") as they travelled with his remains and envisioned a home for them at Durham. The novel moves through time concentrating on a collection of characters who share characteristics through time but are mostly living in the area around Durham Cathedral .It is not until 2013, when a new café is being constructed, that their mass grave will be discovered. Daring, expansive and deeply satisfying, Cuddy is a truly original piece of writing which weaves a special kind of magic. In this first story we meet the young cook who is part of the haliwerfolk, feeding the monks with whatever can be found and also tending to their ailments – their aches and pains and even their tooth aches. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.

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