Merry Christmas, Ms Minerva!

by Edmund Cooper

This powerful and horrific novel is set in England in the early part of the 21st century. It tells of the tragic and terrifying events that occur on one day - Christmas Eve - in the life of Maggie Minerva, the attractive widow of a Trade Union boss. These events have startling repercussions not only for the people involved but also for the social structure of Britain.

Genres: Science Fiction

158 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1978

About the author

Excerpted from wikipedia:
Edmund Cooper was born in Marple, near Stockport in Cheshire on April 30, 1926. He served in the Merchant Navy towards the end of the Second World War. After World War II, he trained as a teacher and began to publish short stories. His first novel, Deadly Image (later republished as The Uncertain Midnight) was completed in 1957 and published in 1958. A 1956 short story, Brain Child, was adapted as the movie The Invisible Boy (1957).
In 1969 The Uncertain Midnight was adapted for Swiss television, in French. At the height of his popularity, in the 1970s, he began to review science fiction for the Sunday Times and continued to do so until his death in 1982.
Apart from the website mentioned above there was another Edmund Cooper website full of information about the author and his publications.

Known Pseudonyms:
Richard Avery
George Kinley
Martin Lester
Broderick Quain

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I have been hunting for many years being a collector of the works of Edmund Cooper, and yes I finally gave up and bought the SF Gateway Kindle edition.

Now I will admit I knew very little about this story, just that it is incredibly rare and hardly mentioned in his bibliographies - and I can see why, but more on that later.

I have been fascinated with the works of Mr Cooper from the day I first picked up the A Distant Sunset at a local charity table top sale (many, many years ago) where someone had donated a whole box of 70s and 80s Science fiction novels.

Now years later I have read a fair majority of them and yes there are some truly amazing books in there but you do start to realise there was a reason why his life (and writing career) ended in obscurity.

Now you have to remember he did the bulk of his work during the political and sexual revolutions of Britain after recovering from the second world war and its long reaching legacy. Now this is by no means a justification just a warning of where some of Edmund Coopers more extreme views were born from.

Now all of this paints a rather bleak picture of this book which is very reminiscent of other more famous British dystopias. It is both brutal and unforgiving, especially the final part of the story. Now I can see the message that Mr Cooper is trying to get across (as subtle as a hammer blow) and the final footnote does draw story to a close but I do feel that some points where laboured too hard.

I guess there is a point where you have to stop working at something for fear of ruining it, I feel this story is one such case. So yes an interesting read in the ongoing exploration of Edmund Cooper but one I feel I may not return to for a very long time.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edmund Cooper's final novel, Merry Christmas Miss Minerva, is an infuriating book. It's for the most part very enjoyable. The characters are excellently written, particularly the titular one, Miss Minerva. She is the widow of a rich and powerful man, Arthur, who she loved and was loved by greatly. After his murder, she loses her way and drifts through life pointlessly indulging her senses where she may. But figures about her have a grisly plan for her to serve their own egos and political ambitions. What happens to this admirable and likeable lady is horrific and unnecessarily described. What may have been a five star book for me almost became a one star book. Life isn't fair, and evil is everywhere if you look for it beneath the mask of society, but having got to know Maggie Minerva so well, it is a tragedy to so viscerally and vicariously experience her grim downfall. A great book, apart from the pointless horror depicted at the end. Her terrible end may be argued to have benefitted the country, but ultimately, it shames it. Enjoyable and infuriating in equal measure.