Publisher Description
For fans of the popular and award-winning Netflix movie Don’t Look Up, a prescient, rediscovered speculative novel about how a small English village prepares for the end of the world.
Edgar Hopkins is a retired math teacher in his mid-fifties with a strong sense of self-importance, whose greatest pride in life is winning poultry breeding contests. When not meticulously caring for his Bantam, Edgar is an active member of the British Lunar Society. Thanks to that affiliation, Edgar becomes one of the first people to learn the moon is on a collision course, headed towards Earth.
Members of the society are sworn to secrecy but eventually the moon looms so large in the sky that the government can no longer deny the truth. It’s during these final days that Edgar befriends two young siblings and writes what he calls The Hopkins Manuscript—a testimony juxtaposing the ordinary and extraordinary as Edgar and the villagers dig trenches and play cricket before the end of days.
First published in 1939, as the world was teetering on the brink of global war, R.C. Sherriff’s classic speculative novel is a timely and powerful warning from the past that captures the breadth of human nature in all its complexity.
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“This wonderful, disturbingly relevant novel, first published in 1939 and newly reissued, inaugurated a genre of a dystopian fiction in which the hero survives the apocalypse.”
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New York Times Book Review
About R. C. Sherriff
R. C. Sherriff (1896–1975) worked in an insurance office until he joined the East Surrey regiment early in World War One. In 1917 he was severely wounded at Ypres. Journey’s End, based on his letters home from the trenches, was an enormous success and became a classic. In the 1930s Sherriff went to Hollywood to write the script for The Invisible Man, and subsequently worked on the script for Mrs. Miniver, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and many other successful films. He wrote several novels, including The Fortnight in September, Greengates, and The Hopkins Manuscript.
About the Narrators
Nicholas Boulton is an actor and narrator whose work has been awarded the prestigious Audio Award for best narration, as well as many AudioFile Earphones Awards. In 2023, he was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the BBC Carleton Hobbs Award for Radio. He has since been featured in countless BBC radio dramas, narrated a plethora of award-winning audiobooks, and died a thousand deaths in various video games. Film, TV and theatre appearances include Shakespeare in Love, Game of Thrones and Wolf Hall.
Lameece Issaq is an actor, voice-over actor, playwright, screenwriter, and Founding Artistic Director of Obie-winning Noor Theatre.