The Billy Palmer Chronicles | Granta

  • Published: 03/02/2011
  • ISBN: 9781846273582
  • Granta Books
  • 544 pages

The Billy Palmer Chronicles

Derek Johns

Billy Palmer grew up in a sleepy rural village, but his dreams were always for something else, something beyond the world he knew. As a child, this desire for the unexplored got him into trouble, as a teenager it drove him to adventure, and as an adult it propels him across the Atlantic to the dazzling lights of Manhattan, where the excitement he’s craved seems finally to come within his grasp, but at what price? Engaging, evocative and flawlessly paced, The Billy Palmer Chronicles is a pitch-perfect tale of one man’s search for the life he’s imagined.

Derek Johns has yet to achieve the readership his novels deserve. His writing is almost too good: simple, economical, unvarnished, devoid of ostentation. If there is art involved, it is the most elusive art of all - the art that conceals art. But this bumper saga, incorporating Wintering, Wakening and two fresh instalments in the life of Billy Palmer, should raise his profile. It is the kind of book that will appeal to people who love books

David Robson, Sunday Telegraph

A naturally occurring classic, a shepherd's calendar for the age

Sebastian Barry

The Author

Derek Johns has been a bookseller, editor and publisher and now works as a literary agent in London.

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