One spring evening in a stone-age encampment, the first word is uttered, followed shortly by the lie. Before long someone had told the first story, cracked the first joke, sparked off the first row…
Gob’s life is at an end. His teeth are gone. His legs won’t work. But there’s nothing wrong with his mouth. And he has plenty to tell. After all, he’s the world’s first narrator. He’s seen it all. He’s lived with baboons and with people, he’s witnessed the invention of sex, the birth of language, he’s survived The Plague, floated through The Flood, and shivered through The Ice. Now, there are things he must say, stories he must get off his chest… Secrets his family must know…
This is a comprehensively rewritten version of a book previously published as ‘The Wurd’ –
“A strange, bollixed, brilliant poem of a book.” John Clute, New Statesman
