Tyro : The Lives of Q

Q is a committed young artist who takes the reader on a riotous odyssey through the salaciousness of Soho, down beneath the historic structures of Burlington House and the Royal Academy Schools, and onwards into a netherworld of wildly disparate ethereal-mystical realms. Set against the gritty backdrop of his real existence on the cold North London streets, he finds friends, bizarre comic happenings, and a secret art-forging factory. With a new love, and in the face of cruelty and farce, will Q finally discover the possibility of redemption in a frantic search for his long-lost and perfidious father?

''Tyro'' is dark and lonely, poignant and even self-destructive, with brilliantly morphed characters displaying both vengeance and vulnerability. It is a mixture of beguiling honesty and simplicity, with sections delivered in such a complex form the mind is kept ever active. The juxtaposition of emotions, tension, extremes of feeling, darkness and light and biomorphic description is raw and risk-laden. A unique piece of writing with remarkable intensity, entwining poetry and art. A challenging compelling journey.'' Lindy Foster Weinreb

‘A fantastical thing, set in a cabalistically weird gothic London wherein Q, an artist, wanders strange-scapes and bizarre cabarets, before the novel plunges into an unhinged, psychedelic underground odyssey. Written and structured like poetry, with resonances of Mervyn Peake and Stanislav Lem, and full of arcane fine art allegory, ''Tyro'' is a dense, brain-frazzling, and ultimately, rewarding read. Unique.’ Thomas H Green (Editor and Co-founder of theartsdesk.com)