The Red Children

by Maggie Gee

It’s the 2030s in Ramsgate and four people who don’t look quite human are found sitting, naked, in the early spring sunlight on the quay of the quiet south coast resort. The locals are puzzled – the newcomers are larger and heavier than they are and say they are fleeing the heat. Soon more arrive. Their tall red-haired leader, The Professor, talks to the universe. The locals talk among themselves.

Red people appear everywhere, making friends, going into the caves, liked by some but accused of bringing infection by others. Two rivalrous brothers, Liam and Joe, take different sides as one joins a notorious far-right group. Their teacher Monica is the first to warn there’ll be trouble. And she’s right, there is; but there is also a great Midsummer Festival, laughter and love.

Set in a world in crisis, this original, gripping fable about migration and global warming restores belief in the power of human kindness.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2022

About the author

Maggie Gee is an English novelist. She was born in Poole, Dorset, then moved to the Midlands and later to Sussex. She was educated at state schools and at Oxford University (MA, B Litt). She later worked in publishing and then had a research post at Wolverhampton Polytechnic where she completed the department's first PhD. She has written eleven novels and a collection of short stories, and was the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, 2004-2008. She is now one of the Vice-Presidents of the RSL and Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. She has also served on the Society of Authors' management committee and the government's Public Lending Right committee. Her seventh novel, The White Family, was shortlisted for the 2003 Orange Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

She writes in a broadly modernist tradition, in that her books have a strong overall sense of pattern and meaning, but her writing is characterised by political and social awareness. She turns a satirical eye on contemporary society but is affectionate towards her characters and has an unironised sense of the beauty of the natural world. Her human beings are biological as well as social creatures, partly because of the influence of science and in particular evolutionary biology on her thinking. Where are The Snows, The Ice People and The Flood have all dealt with the near or distant future. She writes through male characters as often as she does through female characters.

The individual human concerns that her stories address include the difficulties of resolving the conflict between total unselfishness, which often leads to secret unhappiness and resentment against the beneficiaries, and selfishness, which can lead to the unhappiness of others, particularly of children. This is a typical quandary of late-20th and early-21st-century women, but it is also a concern for privileged, wealthy, long-lived western human beings as a whole, and widens into global concerns about wealth and poverty and climate change. Her books also explore how the human species relates to non-human animals and to the natural world as a whole. Two of her books, The White Family and My Cleaner, have had racism as a central theme, dealt with as a tragedy in The White Family but as a comedy in My Cleaner. She is currently writing a memoir called My Animal Life. In 2009 she published "My Driver", a second novel with many of the same characters as My Cleaner, but this time set in Uganda during a time of tension with neighbouring DRC Congo.

Maggie Gee lives in London with her husband, the writer and broadcaster Nicholas Rankin, an author, and their daughter Rosa.

Reviews

[Charles Edwards-Freshwater · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this was one of those cases where I liked the idea, but the actual story didn't work for me.

When "Red Children" show up out of nowhere in Ramsgate in the near(ish) future, the locals are torn on how to react. Some are excited, some have their misgivings, some wish they'd never arrived at all.

Simmering under this bizarre event is a recent history of viral outbreaks that have killed young men, a worsening climate crisis and growing disatisfaction among a group called PBF - Put Britain First.

An intriguing concept, especially as it's soon very clear theat these "Red Children" are neanderthals. There's also some really interesting playing with persepctive here, with two of the characters being ravens (who were, arguably, the best characters in the book).

But here's where the problems quickly begin to creep in.

The first thing that irked me was that there's a professor neanderthal called, I kid you not, Juan Der Thal. Hmm.

Secondly, I couldn't get used to things just randomly happening and it all being painted as some sort of moving event. There's actually not a lot of plot here, and while some of the pieces are cinematic in their scope, the whole book feels muddled together and disatisfying. It very quickly goes from interesting small town event to a weird, global, humanity-should-all-hold-hands kind of thing, which would've worked if there was something underneath that didn't feel empty.

I also didn't really connect to many of the characters (except the ravens, of course). Many of them felt flat or very vague, and I think the main problem was that I didn't get the sense of community that is so necessary for a book that chooses a small town as a setting. On the plus side, living in Kent myself (not too far from Ramsgate) it was really fun to see how Gee wove in some of the local sites, especially the historic viking ship which I thought was a very clever detail.

So, not a winner for me (which is a real shame as I was tempted by the book time and time again in the bookshop, before ultimately deciding to "treat myself" - a treat that clearly didn't come to fruition).

[Lynn Fraser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, witty and beautiful

A group of strange-looking foreigners appear on a Kent beach. Fleeing from the effects of global warming, they stay and more of their kind follow. Begin to find out about the ‘Red Children’ and keep reading to find out about all of us.

This story begins ‘once upon a time’ in a hiatus from pandemic when disgruntled Put Britain First nationalists meet in ‘spoons to complain and blame. It’s told from the point of view of a shifting cast of teachers, teenagers, cleaners, sea cadets and a pair of bickering ravens. It’s kind and scathing, unflinching and subtle, in its depiction of us and them - ultimately just us - shining a light on the strands of history and dna, of yearning and learning, that link us across time and space from cave-dwelling Neanderthals, to South American tribes, to Ramsgate teenagers.

This is a thought-provoking literary tale, told in brilliant and elegant prose, full of wit and wisdom, firmly planted in real life and populated by the most real people. I come to Maggie Gee’s books for the thinking and the writing, but most of all for the people; there isn’t a writer who does people any better.

[semra atilay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is finally over.
When reading a book for one of my courses, I always try to approach it from a respecting perspective to show regards to my professor, who has the ability to find the most unusual bits in the most bluntly written works. This one is definitely not that bad in terms of narration and style but it is still not a book I'd give three stars if I weren't walked through it.
Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens are in the same setting after thousands of years. An absurd idea, I know, but it works wonders with the "us vs. them" theme. How could a physically human-looking creature be "the other"? Where would we draw the line while assigning a meaning to "us"? Are these lines so strict that we cannot erase them or in reality they are blurred, and they change in shape each time one meets the "other" only to make them from "us" when the time comes?
Lots of questions I aroused. The book paves the way for you to think about corporations, institutions, gender, racial issues, migration, and many more topics I cannot think of at this moment (because it is already 4 a.m.).
Let's say it was a positive, thought-provoking reading experience and leave it at that.

[A J HOOPER · Rating 3 out of 5]

A paeon to Neanderthals, making a delightful change to the previously held view that Neanderthals were sub-human. In fact, it seems more and more likely they were as human as ourselves only with differing skills and abilities.
The red children of the title mysteriously appear on the beach at Ramsgate and, by doing so, force the Ramsgate inhabitants to overcome their prejudice of foreigners.
Not all do of course, but the final outcome makes toleration desirable and new developments a positive advantage.
Maggie Gee writes lyrically about her home town and puts a good case for the desirability of inheriting previously despised traits.
I've always thought Neanderthals were given an execrable press so I'm very happy to read something so positive.

[Dartles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a strange unique story, I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I sympathized with the red people for most of the book. I was very confused by the ending.. most of the time I was flipping back to try to understand what was going on. But it was a good book, I think the lesson was to be accepting..? I guess? Well whatever it's not that long so try your hand at it

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once I realised why I didn't love i, it was a chore to get through. The concept seemed really interesting but it felt bland and very surface level.

Maybe her writing style just isn't for me. Either lines long of a single sentence, or incredibly fragmented phrases. I couldn't stop pointing it out.

[Bethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough investigation of both identity and acceptance.
Set in my hometown.
With cameos of those I love.

Finished in 7 hours - 100% worth a read.

[Dean Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story. Not sure I liked the way Ramsgate residents were portrayed but a good story nonetheless.