Graham Pryor studied American Studies and English at the University of Hull. Subsequently, he pursued a career in information management, leaving his childhood home in Hythe, Kent, for the north-east of Scotland, where he has lived and worked for the past forty years. Cerberus is his fifteenth novel and, he says, his favourite.
“We can do what we like,” said the burly policemen to Bill. “We’re the law.” That sounded just the sort of job that might suit him. Do what you like with impunity, have a bit of power over folk, and get paid a half-decent wage at the same time. It was the moment of his epiphany, but it was a change of life that brought Bill into a larger game than the one he was used to, a world where more powerful people than he exercised their entitlements, a world where he was returned to a familiar struggle against unfair laws and the plight of desperate people. Using his native wit – and a GCSE in Latin, he would proudly claim – Bill treads a risky path to help foil organised people trafficking, sustained throughout by his sense of humour and an old-school irreverence. If you can’t beat them, join them, may have been his motto, but he learns that sometimes one has to accept there are certain elements of established society that will never be beaten. Bill, however, remains optimistic to the last, he has his own inner advocate for survival, and survive he will.
That the gun was kept in a drawer of the old Singer sewing machine was never a secret; although, when his father died, its significance as a reminder of the old man’s mysterious occupation was quickly overshadowed by the discovery of a fortune in banknotes in the loft.
There was, too, the emergence of some alarming connections with an extreme nationalist organisation. And if all that wasn’t enough to disrupt his quiet existence, the presence of dognappers in the village presented a more immediate cause for concern than how to deal with an unexpected legacy, although the inherited gun would come in handy there.
For the new owner of the gun, and very quickly too, the quiet Scottish village of Beachborough was transformed into a centre of smuggling, money laundering and revolution, such a situation of turbulence as had not been known since the Jacobite rising, centuries before. As a singularly unremarkable man, would it be possible for him to stay such an unsettling tide of change, or could he maintain his studied convention of spectator?
Frustrated equally by misrule at Westminster and the Scottish government’s failure to progress the independence agenda, a reinvigorated Scottish National Liberation Army seizes power from Scotland’s ruling party, the SNP, after a campaign of attrition during the 2020s. This tale follows the adventures of two young revolutionaries as they pursue their patriotic goal whilst struggling to understand their own personal and philosophical commitment to the cause.
With the effects of climate change now moving into a series of extreme weather events, normal life is so disrupted that unnatural (some would say magical) events appear almost as everyday occurrences, until eventually the human turmoil and the weather disruption come together in a dramatic conclusion that puts into question the singularity of the human experience.
Rescued from the horrors of an animal research laboratory, the mastiff, Garth, discovers that his new freedom comes with certain obligations. Released into a new world where the Grey Men have gifted the Canidae the power of speech and higher consciousness, he persuades the rest of his adoptive pack that they must help the aliens complete their mission to ‘unmake’ the human species. In the course of doing this Garth discovers much about the true nature of his relationship with the Grey Men, including that his own future is not as liberated as he first imagined.
On Garth’s journey of discovery, he is accompanied by a colourful assortment of canine companions, whose adventures celebrate the richness of personalities in the canid community, as they struggle to understand the implications of their new capabilities. One major difference between them and the humans becomes starkly evident by the end of this remarkable tale.
Reviewed on Amazon.com, CERBERUS is proving a hit stateside: Top review from the United States Louise Glass 5.0 out of 5 stars Unleashing a World of Canine Wisdom Reviewed i ........
I'm delighted to announce that Cerberus, A World Gone To The Dogs, has gained a readership in Australia. The following review has been posted on Amazon.AU, and is very positive. Top review fr ........
Do you like dogs? Are you always wondering what they are thinking? Well, the dogs of Cerberus would tell you if you asked, and in no uncertain terms. Join the conversation, secure your copy no ........
Alba Regained is due for release on 28th June. I was aware that Amazon have had it for pre-order for some weeks and, out of curiosity, did a search to see if Waterstones gave it a mention. They haven’ ........
This is great, I thought, much better than self-publication. Having a commercial publisher at last, I can just sit back and think about my next work. No more trying to flog my book through friends ........
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