Beasts of England

‘In Beasts of England, Adam Biles has updated and retooled Animal Farm for today, and in this clever, resourceful and at times painful novel, the risk pays off … Biles knows that today’s post-truth world is very different from its 1940s incarnation – indeed, his ability to exploit similarities without implying false equivalences is part of what makes Beasts of England so historically and politically literate, as well as entertaining.’

Patrick McGuinness, Guardian

‘Biles’s novel puts everything on show, and in doing so stops the reader several times through its sheer brutality. The extended nightmarish finale is a brilliantly weird, heartfelt tribute to Orwell’s original.’

Jeremy Wikeley, Telegraph

‘A delicately subversive sequel-of-sorts to Orwell’s masterpiece … Beasts of England is a grim and clever take on Orwell for our modern times, a call to arms that offers a sliver of hope, a small window on its way to closing’

Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times

‘With his more expansive canvas, Biles is able to pack in the nuances of all that ails contemporary politics and society. From technocracy to fake news to the insidious role of AI, there’s everything and more that you would expect from a smart and gifted storyteller. But at heart, the problems remain the same … The rich keep getting richer, while the rest go to the dogs, literally and figuratively in the case of Biles’ novel.’

Somak Ghoshal, Mint Lounge

‘In a 1945 review, the Guardian described (Animal Farm) as “a delightfully humorous and caustic satire on the rule of the many by the few,” and since we are once again living through tumultuous, inequitable times, the same can well be said of Adam Biles’s novel.’

Sanjay Sipahimalani, Moneycontrol