A man who lived alone on a rocky island in the North Sea, preferring the solitude and the wild birds to the company of men.

My expectations were only met piecemeal, more consistently in the first half than in the second half. I've read several other books from Benjamin Myers and not one has disappointed me (The Perfect Circle is a beautiful evocation of the English countryside). It is mostly at the fictional end of the historical fiction spectrum, and although St Cuthbert or Cuddy is, along with Durham Cathedral, the main link between its parts, he remains a peripheral and elusive figure who mostly appears in the other protagonists' dreams and vision. It was particularly satisfying that the main POV character is a female disciple named Ediva, a foundling who had visions, including of the church where Cuthbert would finally be buried after centuries of nomadism. Cuddy is a book told through four connected novels, plus an interlude, at different key moments throughout the history of Durham Cathedral and its founding as a home for the relics of St Cuthbert.Women’s voices are at the forefront in the first two books, the last two focus on men who don’t have faith. Don’t be put off by the slightly difficult beginning - this book gets better and better as it progresses. Cuthbert is one of Britain’s most popular saints, widely venerated for his affinity with animals, his sympathy for ordinary working people and his association with the landscapes and holy places of the north of England. Some sections read like non- fiction (literally page after page of direct quotes from reference books), others read like fiction, others like poetry (with floating words and lines mid sentence, italicised stanzas and text getting smaller and larger) and others like pieces of source material with references unusually held within the main body of the text.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. The book about the 19th century Oxford professor who comes to Durham to witness the exhumation of Cuddy was in my opinion the least strong of all, but the last book was so moving and beautiful that I need to give five stars anyway. The middle two parts less so though I did enjoy Myers's take on the 19th century epistolary style (well, diary, not letters).Cuthbert was first buried on Lindisfarne, an island off the Northumbrian coast and scene of the first Viking raid on England. It's going to be hard to find a reader who loves every section equally and there will inevitably be highs and lows. But, they are of course linked by a shared sense of place and a history which ultimately binds them together, if not as seamlessly as one might expect. The pacing, sense of place and period, and the personal stories of its protagonists in Cuddy grip from the beginning and keep a firm hold right through its 400+ pages.

Here we have all the poetry and intensity of his writing, all the excellence of his historical fiction and it is all mixed together with some literary experimentation that makes you think Myers is really going places with his writing. It is poetry and prose, fact and fiction, passionate and discursive: a dash through over a thousand years of history.

He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize. The final part of the novel, Daft Lad, brings us at last to the present, or rather the very recent past of 2019. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. When 2019 rolled around I went in thinking I would be disinterested, especially since it didn't instantly seem connected to the rest of the book, but actually I got drawn into Michael's story. Myers weaves recurring symbols and images throughout his stories and the overall effect is of the unifying influence of myth, story and shared experiences across the ages, and in particular, the long, beneficent influence of the the Saxon saint at the centre of this remarkable story.