Beast

Jeremy Underwood is a long-serving subeditor on The Daily Beast, Britain's mightiest tabloid. Returning from holiday, he notices two burqa-clad figures lurking outside the Beast's offices in Kensington. Fear is in the air since two male suspects have escaped wearing head-to-toe garments. Jeremy's observation sets off a chain of events that rapidly escalates from suspicion to sheer delirium, as the great Beast comes under siege. Alex Starritt's satirical novel is a vivid anatomy of that most uncontrollable and irresponsible of large creatures, the British tabloid newspaper. He writes with pinpoint precision about the ways in which scapegoats are selected by an institution that sees itself as the voice of Middle England. The fearsome professionalism and manic rivalries of a newsroom have rarely been so well described. This is a compelling novel in which comedy teeters on the edge of horror.