In the Beginning

Simon Edge

From the author of The End of the World is Flat

‘A coruscating satire on currently trendy anti-science lunacy’ Richard Dawkins

When Tara Farrier returns to the UK after a long spell as an aid worker in war-torn Yemen, she’s hoping for a well-deserved rest.

But a cultural battleground has emerged while she’s been away, and she’s unprepared for the sensitivities of her new colleagues at an international thinktank. A throwaway reference to volcanic activity millions of years ago gets her into hot water and she discovers she belongs to the group reviled by fashionable activists as ‘Young Earth Rejecting Fascists’, or ‘Yerfs’. Faster than she can say ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’, she is at the centre of a gruelling legal drama.

In the keenly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed The End of the World is Flat, Simon Edge stabs once again at modern crank beliefs and herd behaviour with stiletto-sharp satire.

‘In his nifty satire, Simon Edge has created a fictional popular lunacy – saying that Earth is millions of years old is offensive – to expose exactly how such human madnesses occur’ The Spectator

‘I hugely recommend Simon Edge’s magnificent pair of novels, The End of the World is Flat and In the Beginning. Coruscating satires on currently trendy anti-science lunacy, and the spiteful viciousness of its juvenile zealots and their cowardly adult enablers’ Richard Dawkins

‘Compelling and empathic... Edge perfectly exposes the ludicrous views and hollow values held by the globe’s most educated people’ The Critic

‘Simon Edge is the wickedest of satirists, and never funnier than when skewering transgender activism and credulity’ Amanda Craig

‘Another richly enjoyable, rapier-sharp lampoon of cancel culture, witch hunts and the madness of crowds from the author of The End of the World is Flat’ Saga Magazine

‘Funny, clever, and the retelling of the Maya Forstater case in the most astute and hilarious manner. I loved every line’ Julie Bindel

‘Completely absurd yet painfully accurate, In the Beginning brilliantly parodies a fiasco that already seems beyond parody’ Victoria Smith, author of Hags

‘Funny, witty, delightfully satirical’ Madeleine D’Arcy, winner of the Hennessy Literary Award

‘Edge is Britain’s leading exponent of Horatian satire. Yes, he likes his characters, but also sees through them – and us, his readers – with pellucid insight’ Helen Dale

Paperback: 384pp

Published: Lightning (June 2023)

ISBN: 9781785633546