The Restraint of Beasts and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy Used
Used - Good See details
Price: £1.49
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book
Start reading The Restraint of Beasts on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Restraint of Beasts [Paperback]

Magnus Mills (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £5.27   -- --
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback £5.99   -- --
Paperback, 7 Sep 1998 --   -- --
Audio, Cassette, Abridged, Audiobook --   -- --
Books Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

Publication Date: 7 Sep 1998

A queasy, spooky, murderously funny tale from the driver of the number 18 bus…

• What do you do when you’re asked to supervise the unsupervisable? You go along with it, of course…
• Meet Tam and Richie: two dour Scots labourers. Clad in denim, workshy, permanently discontented, intent on getting to the pub every night come hell or high water – in short, akin to your average British workers. But Tam and Richie, with their new supervisor, begin to display hidden depths.
• Despatched to a farmsite on the Hereford-Powys border by their building contractor bosses, they in turn despatch first one client then another, all the while sticking unbendingly to their rituals until comeuppance comes to herd them away.
• What fresh hell is this they inhabit?

Product details

  • Paperback: 215 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo (7 Sep 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0002257203
  • ISBN-13: 978-0002257206
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.7 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 848,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Magnus Mills Page
Magnus Mills
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Amazon Review

Building high-tension fencing with a couple of rural Scots louts--what could be a more likely premise for a black comedy? An eerie noir fable told in a grim, deadpan voice, The Restraint of Beasts tells the story of an English fence-builder promoted to foreman over two under-motivated labourers. They've just been sent out to fix a badly done fence when events go horribly awry--and not for the last time either. For the rest of the novel, as his charges drink, loaf and pound the occasional fence-post, events go badly amiss over and over again. In a sense, that's all you can truly rely on in Mills's fictional world. It is not giving away too much to say that if you hire these workers to assemble your high-tension fence, you'd best watch your back. Or your front, for that matter. And keep a firm eye on the skies, just in case.

The team travels south to England, where they live out of a damp, cold caravan in the town of Upper Bowland. Here they soon find themselves at loggerheads with the sinister Hall brothers, whose business enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering, sausage-making and the mysterious "school dinners". "We committed no end of good deeds!" cries John Hall. "Yet still we lost the school dinners! Always the authorities laying down some new requirement, one things after another! This time is seems we must provide more living space. Very well! If that's the way they want it, we'll go on building fences for ever if necessary! We'll build pens and compounds and enclosures! And we'll make sure we never lose them again!"

In between placing Kafkaesque obstacles in his narrator's path, Mills seeds his novel with small, darkly comic touches: Tam's father, whom we last see erecting a stockade round his house "to stop you from coming home any more"; the sound of Richie's Black Sabbath tapes "slowly being stretched in an under-powered cassette player"; the caravan's encroaching squalor; An Early Bath for Thompson, the book that Richie tries in vain to read when they run out of money for pubs. No doubt about it, this is a strange book that only grows stranger as it progresses; with any luck it augurs well for more brilliant, odd work from debut novelist Mills. --Mary Park

Review

‘A demented, deadpan comic wonder, this rude salute to the dark side of contract employment has the exuberant power of a magic word it might possibly be dangerous (like the title of a certain other Scottish tale) to speak out loud.’
Thomas Pynchon

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
'I'm putting you in charge of Tam and Richie,' said Donald. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-constructed comedy of poorly-constructed fences! 3 May 2005
By "gavinrob2001"
Format:Paperback
Magnus Mills' has crafted a particularly well-written black comedy around the unlikely theme of fence construction. In 'The Restraint of Beasts', the English narrator receives the dubious honour of being appointed supervisor of two Scottish fence-builders: the bone idle Richie and his even lazier offsider Tam. Both Richie and Tam are live for the day - or at least a few pints at night - and never seem to have two pennies to rub together. The novel faithfully captures the sheer drudgery of repetitive and mundane physical labour, as well as the humour that can occur in such workplaces. The work of this team as they construct supposedly high-tensile fences comes under a great deal of scrutiny from management, clients and rivals - with darkly funny consequences. Suffice it to say that there are many laughs in this quirky novel that has resonances of classic English comedies such as 'Withnail and I' and 'The League of Gentlemen'.

Magnus Mills' debut novel would have been a possible 5-star contender for most of the journey. However, the novel becomes significantly blacker and less humourous in the final stages with no apparently good reason, ending most abruptly in an annoying and unsatisfying manner. Nevertheless, 'The Restraint of Beasts' is a highly entertaining, off-beat black comedy that accurately portrays the lifestyle of workers fenced in by economic forces.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars It was going so well until the end 15 Jan 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I can't give this book the 5 stars others have awarded, even though I would agree with most of the other comments; the book is a good read, an excellent black comedy.

The only problem is the way it is finished off - the story has been carefully crafted and the possibility of some more delicious moments meticulously set up. And then .... nothing! As I was reading it I was thinking, "this is good, how is it going to be resolved?" It wasn't, much to my annoyance.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Effortless genius 8 Aug 2008
By Jim Ashton
Format:Paperback
How is it possible to write such a beautiful, engaging and un-put-downable book without any discernible plot? Mills does, and it is a work of genius; one that deserves to become a classic.

Some guys build a fence. That's about it. But what characters! Mills has an ability to write character and scene in a way that makes you love even the most unlovable of them. No author since Steinbeck has managed it so convincingly. His prose is clean, clear and full of life, never seeking to impress, but doing so time after time.

This book is not for everyone - but everyone should give it a go. It's fresh, unusual, and never to be forgotten!
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Restraint of Beasts , not my kind of book!!!!
Not really mu sort of book, so far!! Reading it in the disma; weather we have had recently, I just saw endless grey, muddy fields and the humour escaped me!!!
Published 2 months ago by Sue Myring
5.0 out of 5 stars What?
Still no one has explained the hidden meanings....... sausages,Hall Bros,sudden ending,etc. Anyway it's a good read and it makes you think for ages afterwards. Read more
Published 6 months ago by William Thurgood
1.0 out of 5 stars Much ado about fences and sausages.
Until recently I knew nothing of Magnus Mills - a situation which, sadly, no longer obtains. This long-winded shaggy dog story seems to have taken in many, though none that I have... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Bluecashmere.
5.0 out of 5 stars A very funny and intelligent book
I'll just add to what everyone else has said that it is a very funny and intelligent look at the sort of physical work that ordinary people have always done. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. P. I. Browne
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Banal
This is a tale about three men who work for a Scottish construction company, a calm foreman and his two bickering colleagues. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Book Republik
5.0 out of 5 stars Just who is restrained?
The question Mills asks is "Just who is most trapped by the work of the fencing contractors?"

The ending is top notch, once you think laterally
Published 22 months ago by C. Cairns
5.0 out of 5 stars something's not quite right here
A wonderful offbeat story, full of dry deadpan wit, about ordinary lives with just a hint of the absurd.
Published on 19 Aug 2010 by Tom White
4.0 out of 5 stars Dark
Dark, weird, funny. Not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely different. Check out his other books.
Published on 18 Aug 2010 by M. Mcardell
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read!
Have been looking for a new book to read after long hectic day at work and after having to deal with my toddler when I get home. This fits the bill. Read more
Published on 9 July 2009 by H. Stephens
4.0 out of 5 stars From the outset it has a real quirky feel about it....
Magnus Mills has written a very funny novel. From the outset it has a real quirky feel about it and the humour is so black you could tar the road with it! Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2008 by Daniel Parsons
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback