Restraint of Beasts

'A heaving cauldron of black humour ... You'll never look at a stretch of high-tensile agricultural fencing in quite the same way ever again' Time Out

'Extremely unusual, finely crafted and funny' Observer

'Tam and I took hold of Mr McCrindle and lowered him into the hole, feet first. We decided to leave his cap on.'


Fencers Tam, Richie and their ever-exasperated English foreman are forced to move from rural Scotland to England for work.

After a disastrous start involving a botched fence and an accidental murder, the three move to a damp caravan in Upper Bowland and soon find themselves in direct competition with the sinister Hall Brothers whose business enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering and sausage-making...

The Restraint of Beasts introduced readers to the now much-loved unique voice of Magnus Mills and his surreally comic world.