Rough Music

"A bracingly unsentimental perspective on post-war Britain." David Kynaston, social historian, author of A Northern Wind

"What should they know of England who only England know?" Kipling's famous question reverberates through Alan Humm's ambitious new novel.

In the tradition of Ragtime and Underworld, this sweeping historical saga spans more than six decades of English life, charting the rise and fall of successive Labour and Tory governments while offering a sharply sardonic portrait of the press and the institutions that shape public opinion.

Already praised for his "absolutely terrific" recreation of Dickensian London and his "powerfully visceral" and "luminous" poetry, Humm turns his keen eye to the forces that bind past and present. Through the intertwined lives of fathers and sons, lovers, husbands and wives, he reveals how private struggles and public histories are inextricably linked.

At its heart lies a deceptively simple question: How should we love? Humm poses it not only to individuals, but to a nation itself. Rich in insight, wit, and emotional intelligence, this is a novel that examines the stories a country tells about itself-and the people who must live with their consequences.