Lanny is an extraordinary novel. A devastating story told with the anarchy, humour and enchantment Max Porter’s readers will recognise from his Dylan Thomas Prize-winning Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Porter introduces the story and reads, accompanied by a specially commissioned score from the Herefordshire folk duo Alula Down.

“This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England’s mysterious past and its confounding present. It belongs to Mad Pete, the grizzled artist. To ancient Peggy, gossiping at her gate. To families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here. But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.”