The Hopkins Conundrum

By Simon Edge

Tim Cleverley inherits a failing pub in Wales, which he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated 'mystery' about the mysterious poet, Gerald Manley Hopkins, who composed 'The Wreck of the Deutschland' nearby. Blending the real stories of Hopkins and the shipwrecked nuns he wrote about with a contemporary love story, while casting a wry eye on the Dan Brown industry, The Hopkins Conundrum is a highly original blend of historical fiction and contemporary satire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lightning Books
• Release date: May 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781785630392

Simon Edge

From the author of The End of the World is Flat The Terg wars are over. Now meet the Yerfs 'Brilliant! Perfectly captures both the absurdity and horror of this madness'. Gareth Roberts. When Tara Farrier returns to the UK after a long spell as an aid worker in war-torn Yemen, she’s hoping for a well-deserved rest. But a cultural battleground has emerged while she’s been away, and she’s unprepared for the sensitivities of her new colleagues at an international thinktank. A throwaway reference to volcanic activity millions of years ago gets her into hot water and she discovers she belongs to the group reviled by fashionable activists as ‘Young Earth Rejecting Fascists’, or ‘Yerfs’. Faster than she can say ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’, she is at the centre of a gruelling legal drama. In the keenly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed The End of the World is Flat, Simon Edge stabs once again at modern crank beliefs and herd behaviour with stiletto-sharp satire.

Reviews for The Hopkins Conundrum

[bridgey_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I studied Hopkins 20 years ago when doing my English A levels and his poetry has remained with over the last 20 years. You rarely hear much about him outside of the classroom so when I saw this book I thought it was worth a read.The book has 3 themes, the first follows the a section of the life of Hopkins, in the second we are told a partly fictionalised account of the 5 Franciscan Nuns who perished in a storm (and were immortalised in the poem Wreck of the Deutchland). The third theme is total fiction and we meet Tim Cleverly a landlord of a small pub that he has inherited, this is where most of the comedy comes in.Although Tim knows nothing about Hopkins he devises a plan to try and increase footfall to his failing pub by getting a bestselling author to write a book linking Hopkins Poems to clues about the holy grail. The three themes are woven together quite cleverly and you can tell the author is both a fan of the poet and has completed his research.My only criticism was that the author seems to dwell far too much on the sexuality of Hopkins. It is supposed if not that well documented that he was homosexual and this was developed a bit too much for me in the story. I wondered why this was and did my own bit of research on the author, it seems he is was once editor of Capital Gay and has also published a book called "With Friends Like These", a critique of the Left’s record on gay rights. I think maybe he has allowed his own perceptions of Hopkins and his sexuality to colour the poets character.I really did enjoy the book, and an easy recommendation.