The Quanderhorn Xperimentations
Great Britain in 1952, although few have noticed that it has been the same year for 65 years. People like the reassuring familiarity of class divisions and rationing. Winston Churchill is once again Prime Minister, who, with his Government, is terrified they might be out of power if it were another year. The man behind this is Professor Quanderhorn, a brilliant scientist with no morals, who, on one hand has saved the world countless times from several Martian invasions, the attack of the Mole people and Beatniks from under Sea, using a range of increasingly bizarre weapons, including a fleet of Monkey-driven lorries, and yet wants to push his increasingly insane scientific experiments as far as possible, even if it destroys the world. The book is structured around ‘evidence’ from documents and artefacts discovered during the restoration of the Palace of Westminster. Some chapters are pages from the journal of Brian Nylon, colleague and foe of Quanderhorn, others extracts from scientific journals, secret reports to Martian command and Troy’s Big Bumper Drawing Book. It is difficult to unravel the plot any further as none of it makes much sense until towards the end – and even then it isn’t all that clear. It moves along at such a fast pace it is often hard to keep up.
The cover states it is either based on or spawned a BBC Radio 4 series, as it claims to have travelled back in time and had been written before it all happened, so could even be a true story. This book is filled with satire and comedy and is supremely daft. Although the humour may not be to everyone’s taste, it is cleverly written and a recommended read.
