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Only The Lowly
Ten over-lit comic tales of perverted domestic bliss from the shores of a post-apocalyptic seaside resort somewhere between Blackpool and Atlantic City. Life, memory and social habits have all changed, inverted and become confused since the sea washed away most of what existed before in The Great Arising. The tales of Bertie and Cara’s married life rise and fall between cruelty, sentimentality and a nobility of squalor.
The Lowly of the title is the collective name given to a variety of creatures that have been bred from human and animal genes as slaves to the surviving populace, attempting to make the world ‘normal’ again and deny all the inconvenient histories of the past. Slow-witted and charmingly innocent they are limited beings that stand in stark contrast to the selfish spite and bigotry of their masters.
B. Catling is a sculptor, poet, performance artist, film maker and novelist, whose recent VORRH trilogy has won great critical and public acclaim. His fictional works are currently being adapted for film and long sequence TV series. He is also a Royal Academician and Emeritus Professor in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
‘Brian Catling is simply a genius. His writing is so extraordinary it hurts. It makes me realise how little imagination I have.’
- Terry Gilliam
‘Very weird, very wonderful – the blind prophet gives warning, opens our eyes and offers a counter spell.’
- Marina Warner
The Lowly of the title is the collective name given to a variety of creatures that have been bred from human and animal genes as slaves to the surviving populace, attempting to make the world ‘normal’ again and deny all the inconvenient histories of the past. Slow-witted and charmingly innocent they are limited beings that stand in stark contrast to the selfish spite and bigotry of their masters.
B. Catling is a sculptor, poet, performance artist, film maker and novelist, whose recent VORRH trilogy has won great critical and public acclaim. His fictional works are currently being adapted for film and long sequence TV series. He is also a Royal Academician and Emeritus Professor in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
‘Brian Catling is simply a genius. His writing is so extraordinary it hurts. It makes me realise how little imagination I have.’
- Terry Gilliam
‘Very weird, very wonderful – the blind prophet gives warning, opens our eyes and offers a counter spell.’
- Marina Warner
131 pages, ebook
Published March 24, 2019
6 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Brian Catling
27 books353 followersAlso publishes as B. Catling.
Brian Catling was born in London in 1948. He was a poet, sculptor and performance artist, who made installations and painted egg tempera portraits of imagined Cyclops. He was commissioned to make solo installations and performances in many countries including Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland and Australia. He also wrote novels.
He was Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a fellow of Linacre College.
Brian Catling was born in London in 1948. He was a poet, sculptor and performance artist, who made installations and painted egg tempera portraits of imagined Cyclops. He was commissioned to make solo installations and performances in many countries including Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland and Australia. He also wrote novels.
He was Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a fellow of Linacre College.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 24, 2021
Brian Catling could hardly be accused of being predictable. After his patchy yet inspired Vorrh trilogy, we have a number of short works from various publishers, including this (currently) Kindle-only collection, Only the Lowly.
A series of loosely linked vignettes about a couple living at a Brighton-esque seaside resort, it gradually emerges that something is clearly off-kilter about the situation.
Like a kind of post-apocalyptic Keeping Up Appearances with shades of The Island of Dr Moreau, it features a deeply disconcerting blend of horror and humour that's perhaps closest in spirit to The League of Gentlemen.
The frequent use of malapropisms is particularly striking and contributes to the impression of characters who are enthusiastically appropriating the culture of middle class British society whilst unwittingly making a grotesque mockery thereof.
It's ultimately too insubstantial to be essential, even for fans of The Vorrh, but it is profoundly weird.
A series of loosely linked vignettes about a couple living at a Brighton-esque seaside resort, it gradually emerges that something is clearly off-kilter about the situation.
Like a kind of post-apocalyptic Keeping Up Appearances with shades of The Island of Dr Moreau, it features a deeply disconcerting blend of horror and humour that's perhaps closest in spirit to The League of Gentlemen.
The frequent use of malapropisms is particularly striking and contributes to the impression of characters who are enthusiastically appropriating the culture of middle class British society whilst unwittingly making a grotesque mockery thereof.
It's ultimately too insubstantial to be essential, even for fans of The Vorrh, but it is profoundly weird.
April 2, 2019
An endlessly fascinating book seemingly set on earth an unspecified amount of time in the future. You follow the lives of married couple Cara and Bertie, mostly told from Bertie's perspective, he becomes more and more deplorable as the book progresses and we get a deeper look into his thoughts and actions. The world building was riveting, snip its of information gradually being fed to us through Bertie's interactions with the world around him. The way Catling played with language in this book was captivating and really brought home the grimy and wholly unpleasant nature of the world and the characters. It was a joy to read, not that anyone cares, but I've in the mists of pretty rough patch in my life and reading this book is the first thing I truly enjoyed in months. As soon as I finished it I downloaded "The Vorrh" on audio book and am enjoying it just much. I could not recomend this book enough.
April 12, 2023
A series of short stories, sequential in nature, set in the future after a great flood destroys/transforms civilization, about some strange events in the lives of a couple named Bertie and Cara. Catling will never leave you disappointed with the sheer bizarro nature of his stories. While I would have enjoyed a bit more world-building, there is no doubt in the fully authentic characters, creatures and places that they are able to conjure in a trim 100 pages. And yet, beyond being for mere amusement, I found myself wondering why I was reading this. Escapism? A reminder that no matter how much the world mutates/evolves at the root we maintain our petty power dynamics, lusts and fears? With the back story of a flood apocalypse, perhaps these things take on mythopoetic and archetypal qualities. But it was over before I was able to draw any grand conclusions.
April 13, 2025
Catling is always great. This one surprised me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews