Description
2018 QUEEN MARY/REPUBLIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS LONGLIST
The startling memoir of a dentist who for 700 years pulled teeth in the approach to Canterbury, beside its city gate.
The hustle and bustle of a road congested with pilgrims, insurgents, migrants, dissenters, quacks, militias and Mods. Facetime with Thomas More, William Courtenay, Darwin, Marx and the Red Dean.
Toothpull of St Dunstan is a deep dive of discovery into the margin of a cathedral city, revealing how pain, toothcare and life in the street – along with faith, threats and resistance – change and change again in unexpected ways. Autofiction that will set your teeth on edge!
A modern Canterbury tale propelled by dramatic incidents and disturbances which take place outside the gate over seven centuries – from the Peasant’s Revolt to the Blitz, from plagues and protests against the Corn Laws to rowdy mods on scooters in the sixties – packed with striking episodes drawing on the real and probable and at times the outlandish.
After reading Toothpull, the last few yards of the ancient Pilgrim’s Way will never look the same again.
Neither will your dentist. Nor will tired mainstream history fiction – its time is up.
WHAT THEY SAY…
A superb adventure in avant-garde historical fiction. It will leave you pondering the ethics of writing history, the pace and cost of social change, and your next dental check-up.
W J DAVIES TLS
I never thought I would feel empathy, admiration, and affection for a dentist. Even one seven hundred years old. That’s quite an achievement. Chaucer would applaud.
BERNARD SHARRATT
The prose is polyphonic and richly textured, embracing temporal simultaneity: pilgrims take selfies, medieval characters scale plastic crates and historical figures brush up against mods and rockers. Language evolves with time, yet remains distinctively voiced. … The compact literary density may seem daunting to some, but the effort is certainly worth it. Davey doesn’t spoon-feed, and his work respects its reader’s intelligence and curiosity.
DAVID COLLARD
