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The Perfect Golden Circle
England, 1989. Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men – traumatized Falklands veteran Calvert, and affable, chaotic Redbone – set out nightly in a clapped-out camper van to undertake an extraordinary project.
Under cover of darkness, the two men traverse the fields of rural England in secret, forming crop circles in elaborate and mysterious patterns. As the summer wears on, and their designs grow ever more ambitious, the two men find that their work has become a cult international sensation – and that an unlikely and beautiful friendship has taken root as the wheat ripens from green to gold.
Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power.
Under cover of darkness, the two men traverse the fields of rural England in secret, forming crop circles in elaborate and mysterious patterns. As the summer wears on, and their designs grow ever more ambitious, the two men find that their work has become a cult international sensation – and that an unlikely and beautiful friendship has taken root as the wheat ripens from green to gold.
Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power.
246 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 12, 2022
270 people are currently reading
6584 people want to read
About the author
Benjamin Myers
35 books1,201 followersBenjamin Myers was born in Durham, UK, in 1976.
He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize.
His first short story collection, Male Tears, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
His novel The Offing was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and is a best-seller in Germany. It was serialised by Radio 4's Book At Bedtime and Radio 2 Book club choice. It is being developed for stage and has been optioned for film.
The non-fiction book Under The Rock, was shortlisted for The Portico Prize For Literature in 2020.
Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.
The Gallows Pole was re-issued by Bloomsbury, alongside previous titles Beastings and Pig Iron.
Several of Myers' novels have been released as audiobooks, read by actor Ralph Ineson.
Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.
His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014.
Pig Iron (2012) was the winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and runner-up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize. A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year.
Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies.
As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.
He currently lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.
He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize.
His first short story collection, Male Tears, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
His novel The Offing was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and is a best-seller in Germany. It was serialised by Radio 4's Book At Bedtime and Radio 2 Book club choice. It is being developed for stage and has been optioned for film.
The non-fiction book Under The Rock, was shortlisted for The Portico Prize For Literature in 2020.
Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.
The Gallows Pole was re-issued by Bloomsbury, alongside previous titles Beastings and Pig Iron.
Several of Myers' novels have been released as audiobooks, read by actor Ralph Ineson.
Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.
His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014.
Pig Iron (2012) was the winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and runner-up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize. A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year.
Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies.
As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.
He currently lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 688 reviews
April 7, 2022
Benjamin Myers, you slippery bastard.
The best writer in the UK expands his range once again with another first class novel which will be just as surprising to fans as The Offing proved. Two men - SAS veteran Calvert and a sort of old hippy (though he'd likely be offended at the description), Redbone - roam the fields of rural England creating elaborate, revolutionary crop circles.
There are aspects of The Perfect Golden Circle that flow through many of his novels - poetic prose, beautiful descriptions of the landscape, subtle social commentary.
But this latest, brilliant effort sees Myers show us something new - humour. He has always felt profound and important but entertainment has never seemed like the key motivation. Here he is more playful than we've seen him. At times it felt like I was watching a lost season of The Detectorists, such was the love I felt for these two oddball characters as I chuckled along with their summer adventures.
The setting here is new, too, and thrilling for myself as a resident of North Wiltshire. Away from his comfort zone, the rugged north, Myers is on fine form with the rolling wheat fields of my adopted county. The descriptions rang true, the images perfectly formed.
It's so satisfying to see my favourite writer continuing to take risks and have them pay off so handsomely. He nailed it, once again. It's as impossibly perfect as one of Redbone's circles.
The best writer in the UK expands his range once again with another first class novel which will be just as surprising to fans as The Offing proved. Two men - SAS veteran Calvert and a sort of old hippy (though he'd likely be offended at the description), Redbone - roam the fields of rural England creating elaborate, revolutionary crop circles.
There are aspects of The Perfect Golden Circle that flow through many of his novels - poetic prose, beautiful descriptions of the landscape, subtle social commentary.
But this latest, brilliant effort sees Myers show us something new - humour. He has always felt profound and important but entertainment has never seemed like the key motivation. Here he is more playful than we've seen him. At times it felt like I was watching a lost season of The Detectorists, such was the love I felt for these two oddball characters as I chuckled along with their summer adventures.
The setting here is new, too, and thrilling for myself as a resident of North Wiltshire. Away from his comfort zone, the rugged north, Myers is on fine form with the rolling wheat fields of my adopted county. The descriptions rang true, the images perfectly formed.
It's so satisfying to see my favourite writer continuing to take risks and have them pay off so handsomely. He nailed it, once again. It's as impossibly perfect as one of Redbone's circles.
July 25, 2023
‘People just want to believe in something bigger than all this. Something beyond. It takes them away from the mundane details of their tiny lives. You can’t blame them.’
Myers has produced another great novel here to go with The Offing and Cuddy, already two of my favourites of all time. This was is set in the summer of 1989 in rural Wiltshire and centred around crop circles. It was the time of illegal raves and New Age Travellers and the Thatcher era was beginning to wind down with protests about the poll tax.
The two main protagonists, indeed pretty much the only characters, are Redbone and Calvert. Redbone lives in his rickety old van and is what would have been described at the time as a crusted punk. He is something of a musician, having been in a variety of local bands. He comes up with the ideas for the crop circles. Calvert is an SAS veteran, having fought in the Falklands War. He is scarred on the inside and out, lost likely having PTSD. He is generally quite taciturn with occasional moments of volubility. He plans the crop circles and identifies the remote locations. There is a chapter for each of the crop circles they create that summer.
“they tell a strange story, create a narrative. More than anything, they are something to believe in during cynical times … Hope is the human currency, and we’re spreading it about.”
The crop circles are symbolic and were quite a thing at the time. There were all sorts of esoteric theories about them, many involving aliens. Myers’s theory here was that it was two approaching middle aged blokes in an old van. One to which I heartily subscribe. The men here are outsiders, on the edges of society. The two men plan in detail and try to avoid notice which they mainly do. There are occasional interruptions from fly tippers, the wildlife, a pissed lord of the manor and confused pensioners. The land itself might almost be seen as a character in itself. It is ancient, almost conscious: there is a sense of history of continuity:
“A dark crescent spreads like a silent malevolent force across the mottled greys and whites of the sullen moon’s countenance, its surface a curious patina. Redbone and Calvert stop what they are doing and stare upwards until their necks ache, not daring to drag their eyes away from the empyrean display. The blank clock-like face fades from view as the black shutter of the earth’s shadow covers it to create a total lunar eclipse, and for a few seconds it feels as if the darkness will be unending and absolute. Momentarily the land is an undeveloped photograph and time is rendered meaningless, and both Redbone and Calvert are aware that they are part of a long lineage of men and women who have stood in these very fields in rapt astonishment for thousands of years, infatuated and intrigued by the magic of the sky at night, and feeling the smallness of their lives and the preciousness of their planetary home.”
This is about much more than just crop circles. It is obviously about the friendship between Redbone and Calvert. They share scraps of their lives and loves (in Redbone’s case) and the way they see society. Calvert has some reflections on his time in the army and his country:
“It means that, once, we looked to the horizon, and we wondered what lay beyond, and then set out for it. We colonised and plundered, and then when innocent people had been slaughtered and their resources accrued, we returned with riches. Then we turned inwards to slowly fester and moil in our bitterness for a century or two, fearful that someone would one day do the same to us. Believe me, I know because I’ve been a part of it, but never again. Never again. The sea is a border, a boundary, and living on an island like this makes us think we’re something special. But we’re not. We’re just scared, that’s all. We’re scared of the world. And that breeds arrogance and ignorance, and ignorance signals the death of decency.”
Although in some ways this feels like a comic novel it has a strand of melancholy woven into it and the humour is often cynical. Myers does manage to create two very unlikely likeable characters and again manages to say a good deal about the current state of England. Again another favourite from Myers.
Myers has produced another great novel here to go with The Offing and Cuddy, already two of my favourites of all time. This was is set in the summer of 1989 in rural Wiltshire and centred around crop circles. It was the time of illegal raves and New Age Travellers and the Thatcher era was beginning to wind down with protests about the poll tax.
The two main protagonists, indeed pretty much the only characters, are Redbone and Calvert. Redbone lives in his rickety old van and is what would have been described at the time as a crusted punk. He is something of a musician, having been in a variety of local bands. He comes up with the ideas for the crop circles. Calvert is an SAS veteran, having fought in the Falklands War. He is scarred on the inside and out, lost likely having PTSD. He is generally quite taciturn with occasional moments of volubility. He plans the crop circles and identifies the remote locations. There is a chapter for each of the crop circles they create that summer.
“they tell a strange story, create a narrative. More than anything, they are something to believe in during cynical times … Hope is the human currency, and we’re spreading it about.”
The crop circles are symbolic and were quite a thing at the time. There were all sorts of esoteric theories about them, many involving aliens. Myers’s theory here was that it was two approaching middle aged blokes in an old van. One to which I heartily subscribe. The men here are outsiders, on the edges of society. The two men plan in detail and try to avoid notice which they mainly do. There are occasional interruptions from fly tippers, the wildlife, a pissed lord of the manor and confused pensioners. The land itself might almost be seen as a character in itself. It is ancient, almost conscious: there is a sense of history of continuity:
“A dark crescent spreads like a silent malevolent force across the mottled greys and whites of the sullen moon’s countenance, its surface a curious patina. Redbone and Calvert stop what they are doing and stare upwards until their necks ache, not daring to drag their eyes away from the empyrean display. The blank clock-like face fades from view as the black shutter of the earth’s shadow covers it to create a total lunar eclipse, and for a few seconds it feels as if the darkness will be unending and absolute. Momentarily the land is an undeveloped photograph and time is rendered meaningless, and both Redbone and Calvert are aware that they are part of a long lineage of men and women who have stood in these very fields in rapt astonishment for thousands of years, infatuated and intrigued by the magic of the sky at night, and feeling the smallness of their lives and the preciousness of their planetary home.”
This is about much more than just crop circles. It is obviously about the friendship between Redbone and Calvert. They share scraps of their lives and loves (in Redbone’s case) and the way they see society. Calvert has some reflections on his time in the army and his country:
“It means that, once, we looked to the horizon, and we wondered what lay beyond, and then set out for it. We colonised and plundered, and then when innocent people had been slaughtered and their resources accrued, we returned with riches. Then we turned inwards to slowly fester and moil in our bitterness for a century or two, fearful that someone would one day do the same to us. Believe me, I know because I’ve been a part of it, but never again. Never again. The sea is a border, a boundary, and living on an island like this makes us think we’re something special. But we’re not. We’re just scared, that’s all. We’re scared of the world. And that breeds arrogance and ignorance, and ignorance signals the death of decency.”
Although in some ways this feels like a comic novel it has a strand of melancholy woven into it and the humour is often cynical. Myers does manage to create two very unlikely likeable characters and again manages to say a good deal about the current state of England. Again another favourite from Myers.
October 11, 2022
The Perfect Golden Circle is the perfect short story. That's precisely how it landed with me—a captured moment in time, an excerpt from a much longer narrative of these central characters, how they came together, what would happen to as their lives rolled along... and yet it is a novel, if only because its length shelves it as such.
Redbone and Calvert are misfits in late 1980's England. Redbone, a self-identified crust punker, lives in his camper van, smokes a fair amount of weed and inks breathtakingly intricate designs in a sketchbook. Calvert is a veteran of the 1982 war in the Falkland Islands. That brief battle did permanent psychic and physical trauma to the young soldier and he hides in small house during the day, curtains drawn against the sun that causes intense pain to eyes damaged in a bomb blast.
At night, Redbone and Calvert traverse England's rural south, creating massive crop circles in fields Calvert has researched during his quiet, darkened days, using the designs Redbone has so painstakingly created. The Perfect Golden Circle is set during the impossibly hot summer of 1989 and chronicles each crop circle created, culminating in Redbone's most ambitious design: the Honeycomb Double Helix.
Their designs—which they craft without breaking a single stalk of wheat so that their guerrilla work is art, not destruction—attracts worldwide attention and the speculation of conspiracy theorists and UFO hunters, certain these crop circles are a sign that a life force from beyond Earth is trying to send humans a message.
The messages Benjamin Myers imparts center around the environment, friendship, and the healing power of art. The novel is a snapshot of Britain during a moment of change: the ending of the Thatcher regime, its social unrest, crippling unemployment and the fading of the British Empire. It is also a fond homage to an imperiled rural idyll in its final moments before giving way to a hyper-connected globalism.
The Perfect Golden Circle is sweet and sad, poignant and mysterious. It left me restless with all that it left unsaid and unfinished. I've not read Benjamin Myers before and found his quiet, ponderous prose lovely and old-fashioned, the way novels used to be before hitting plot beats became more important than story.
Highly recommended.
Redbone and Calvert are misfits in late 1980's England. Redbone, a self-identified crust punker, lives in his camper van, smokes a fair amount of weed and inks breathtakingly intricate designs in a sketchbook. Calvert is a veteran of the 1982 war in the Falkland Islands. That brief battle did permanent psychic and physical trauma to the young soldier and he hides in small house during the day, curtains drawn against the sun that causes intense pain to eyes damaged in a bomb blast.
At night, Redbone and Calvert traverse England's rural south, creating massive crop circles in fields Calvert has researched during his quiet, darkened days, using the designs Redbone has so painstakingly created. The Perfect Golden Circle is set during the impossibly hot summer of 1989 and chronicles each crop circle created, culminating in Redbone's most ambitious design: the Honeycomb Double Helix.
Their designs—which they craft without breaking a single stalk of wheat so that their guerrilla work is art, not destruction—attracts worldwide attention and the speculation of conspiracy theorists and UFO hunters, certain these crop circles are a sign that a life force from beyond Earth is trying to send humans a message.
The messages Benjamin Myers imparts center around the environment, friendship, and the healing power of art. The novel is a snapshot of Britain during a moment of change: the ending of the Thatcher regime, its social unrest, crippling unemployment and the fading of the British Empire. It is also a fond homage to an imperiled rural idyll in its final moments before giving way to a hyper-connected globalism.
The Perfect Golden Circle is sweet and sad, poignant and mysterious. It left me restless with all that it left unsaid and unfinished. I've not read Benjamin Myers before and found his quiet, ponderous prose lovely and old-fashioned, the way novels used to be before hitting plot beats became more important than story.
Highly recommended.
April 21, 2024
Beautifully tender ..........
As Redbone rightly tells us, there is no perfect circle but Dum spiro spero (While I breath I hope), so we continue striving, breathing, hoping, eventhough PTSD is crippling us or the world buffets as along from one gig to another. Myers ode to a great gentle friendship and the huge satisfaction of creating beauty and being in harmony with the natural world around us.
Here is were Myers does a Redbone-like creation.
An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.
As Redbone rightly tells us, there is no perfect circle but Dum spiro spero (While I breath I hope), so we continue striving, breathing, hoping, eventhough PTSD is crippling us or the world buffets as along from one gig to another. Myers ode to a great gentle friendship and the huge satisfaction of creating beauty and being in harmony with the natural world around us.
Here is were Myers does a Redbone-like creation.
An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.
July 23, 2024
Well, I've just found a wonderful new (to me) author: Benjamin Myers. This book is packed with loving descriptions of rural England in the late 1980's, memorable and appealing characters, and acute social commentary gently delivered.
There are two main characters. Redbone is an aging punk musician with a sweet personality but not much else going on, but that's OK with him since he rejects the idea of being part of the mainstream. Then there is Calvert, a former member of the SAS struggling with PTSD following his experiences in the Falklands war. He has been left with little to believe in except for a connection to nature and the importance of magic and wonder in the world.
Together these two social outsiders embark on a third summer of making increasingly elaborate crop circles in the Wiltshire countryside. Redbone creates the designs, and Calvert scopes out the ideal location for each one. Their circles (and other shapes) attract worldwide attention, being variously ascribed to the efforts of aliens or supernatural forces. Redbone and Calvert, working in anonymity, are greatly entertained by these responses. It is their desire only to create awe and beauty, and that they certainly do.
As we learn, these two are not the only denizens of the night. Over the course of the summer they encounter fly tippers, lampers, drunken aristocrats, and others, with each incident illustrating a negative aspect of 20th century Britain. These indirect and often humorous meetings quietly illustrate the reasons Redbone and Calvert choose to inhabit the margins of society. There is nothing in conventional life that draws them, and plenty that repels.
Even out here in the field at night, while focusing on a task, Ivan Robin Calvert is processing his past, in order to survive the present. The future, however, is too perilous a prospect to consider, and this suspected shared fear is another unifying factor in their relationship.
Well, who among us does not participate in some shared fear of the future these days? If only we could distill and comprehend it as well as Myers does in this book. I am very much looking forward to reading more of his work.
There are two main characters. Redbone is an aging punk musician with a sweet personality but not much else going on, but that's OK with him since he rejects the idea of being part of the mainstream. Then there is Calvert, a former member of the SAS struggling with PTSD following his experiences in the Falklands war. He has been left with little to believe in except for a connection to nature and the importance of magic and wonder in the world.
Together these two social outsiders embark on a third summer of making increasingly elaborate crop circles in the Wiltshire countryside. Redbone creates the designs, and Calvert scopes out the ideal location for each one. Their circles (and other shapes) attract worldwide attention, being variously ascribed to the efforts of aliens or supernatural forces. Redbone and Calvert, working in anonymity, are greatly entertained by these responses. It is their desire only to create awe and beauty, and that they certainly do.
As we learn, these two are not the only denizens of the night. Over the course of the summer they encounter fly tippers, lampers, drunken aristocrats, and others, with each incident illustrating a negative aspect of 20th century Britain. These indirect and often humorous meetings quietly illustrate the reasons Redbone and Calvert choose to inhabit the margins of society. There is nothing in conventional life that draws them, and plenty that repels.
Even out here in the field at night, while focusing on a task, Ivan Robin Calvert is processing his past, in order to survive the present. The future, however, is too perilous a prospect to consider, and this suspected shared fear is another unifying factor in their relationship.
Well, who among us does not participate in some shared fear of the future these days? If only we could distill and comprehend it as well as Myers does in this book. I am very much looking forward to reading more of his work.
September 14, 2021
Dieser Roman ist eine ruhig erzählte, von Bildern der Natur Englands geprägte Geschichte mit zwei vom Leben gebeutelten Protagonisten und poetischem, atmosphärischem Schreibstil.
Redbone und Calvert erschaffen heimlich im Süden Englands im Jahr 1989 Kornkreise in einsamen Nächten. Die Handlung der Geschichte erstreckt sich über einen Sommer. Ihre Ideen für diese Kreise nehmen immer gewaltigere Ausmaße an und die Ausführung ihrer Kunst hat auf beide fast schon eine therapeutische Wirkung. Natürlich erregt ihr Handeln mediale Aufmerksamkeit! Presse, Schaulustige, Verschwörungstheoretiker und Forscher stürzen sich auf diese "Phänomene".
Der Roman kommt ohne starken Spannungsbogen daher. Es geht eher um die Freundschaft der beiden Protagonisten, ihre Erlebnisse und Traumata und sehr gelungene Naturbeschreibungen der Natur und Landschaft Englands. Der Erzählton ist ruhig und gemütlich, hat Tiefgang und tolle sprachliche Bilder. Trotzdem konnte mich diese Geschichte nicht genauso begeistern wie "offene See". Redbone und Calvert kamen mir nicht nah genug und auch fehlte mir ein gewisser Spannungsbogen.
Daher 3,5 Sterne.
Redbone und Calvert erschaffen heimlich im Süden Englands im Jahr 1989 Kornkreise in einsamen Nächten. Die Handlung der Geschichte erstreckt sich über einen Sommer. Ihre Ideen für diese Kreise nehmen immer gewaltigere Ausmaße an und die Ausführung ihrer Kunst hat auf beide fast schon eine therapeutische Wirkung. Natürlich erregt ihr Handeln mediale Aufmerksamkeit! Presse, Schaulustige, Verschwörungstheoretiker und Forscher stürzen sich auf diese "Phänomene".
Der Roman kommt ohne starken Spannungsbogen daher. Es geht eher um die Freundschaft der beiden Protagonisten, ihre Erlebnisse und Traumata und sehr gelungene Naturbeschreibungen der Natur und Landschaft Englands. Der Erzählton ist ruhig und gemütlich, hat Tiefgang und tolle sprachliche Bilder. Trotzdem konnte mich diese Geschichte nicht genauso begeistern wie "offene See". Redbone und Calvert kamen mir nicht nah genug und auch fehlte mir ein gewisser Spannungsbogen.
Daher 3,5 Sterne.
September 16, 2021
>>...es gibt Felder voller Geschichten, Geschichten, die Jahrhundert für Jahrhundert erzählt wurden, alle übereinandergeschichtet, genau wie die Gebeine derer, die das Land einst pflügten und beackerten und die Ernten einbrachten und einander ihre Geschichten erzählten...<<
„Der perfekte Kreis“ von Benjamin Myers ist ein ganz ganz leises Buch, das sich mühelos in mein Herz verpflanzt hat. Wieder einmal schafft Benjamin Myers hier Zeilen, in denen ich einfach so viel finden konnte und mit denen er all meine Sinne berührt hat!
>>Solange ich atme, hoffe ich.<<
Von ganzem Herzen hoffe ich, dass Benjamin Myers niemals aufhört seine Gedanken auf Papier zu bringen denn seine Art zu erzählen ist für mich auch dieses Mal wieder einfach ganz besonders. Neben der Freundschaft zwischen Calvert und Redbone, die beide ganz viel aufzuarbeiten haben, spielen die Kornkreise hier eine tragende Rolle. Und alles, was eben mit diesen und der Aktion, die dahinter steckt einher geht, gibt es einfach zwischen den Zeilen ganz vieles, was mich sehr berührt und zum nachdenken gebracht hat. So ist der Hintergrund, dass die beiden etwas von perfekter Schönheit erschaffen wollen ein ganz wichtiger Punkt. Hier geht es nach meinem Empfinden nicht bloß um eine Oberflächlichkeit, vielmehr geht es für beide um den ganz persönlichen Aspekt etwas zu schaffen, das ihnen selbst Hoffnung und auch eine Art von Halt gibt, um weitermachen zu können.
...Es gibt einige Punkte, über die ich nun noch ausschweifend reden und philosophieren könnte, das würde aber wohl den Rahmen hier sprengen, daher kann ich jedem, der die leisen und tiefen literarischen Töne liebt „Der perfekte Kreis“ von Benjamin Myers sehr ans Herz legen💖
„Der perfekte Kreis“ von Benjamin Myers ist ein ganz ganz leises Buch, das sich mühelos in mein Herz verpflanzt hat. Wieder einmal schafft Benjamin Myers hier Zeilen, in denen ich einfach so viel finden konnte und mit denen er all meine Sinne berührt hat!
>>Solange ich atme, hoffe ich.<<
Von ganzem Herzen hoffe ich, dass Benjamin Myers niemals aufhört seine Gedanken auf Papier zu bringen denn seine Art zu erzählen ist für mich auch dieses Mal wieder einfach ganz besonders. Neben der Freundschaft zwischen Calvert und Redbone, die beide ganz viel aufzuarbeiten haben, spielen die Kornkreise hier eine tragende Rolle. Und alles, was eben mit diesen und der Aktion, die dahinter steckt einher geht, gibt es einfach zwischen den Zeilen ganz vieles, was mich sehr berührt und zum nachdenken gebracht hat. So ist der Hintergrund, dass die beiden etwas von perfekter Schönheit erschaffen wollen ein ganz wichtiger Punkt. Hier geht es nach meinem Empfinden nicht bloß um eine Oberflächlichkeit, vielmehr geht es für beide um den ganz persönlichen Aspekt etwas zu schaffen, das ihnen selbst Hoffnung und auch eine Art von Halt gibt, um weitermachen zu können.
...Es gibt einige Punkte, über die ich nun noch ausschweifend reden und philosophieren könnte, das würde aber wohl den Rahmen hier sprengen, daher kann ich jedem, der die leisen und tiefen literarischen Töne liebt „Der perfekte Kreis“ von Benjamin Myers sehr ans Herz legen💖
September 25, 2022
4.5/5 stars
I was a little hesitant about picking up this novel, after hearing quite a few mixed opinions. Yet after only the first page, I had the suspicion that this might just be my kind of book, and I was proven right. Although a little meandering, and sometimes taking on one too many a theme for such a short book, I deeply enjoyed this tale of two damaged men finding companionship, connection and escape in the secret- and unconventional art of crop-circle making.
Told in gorgeous prose that brings the blistering, dusty summer heat and richly memorable characters to life, The Perfect Golden Circle was a perfect escape from the rainy Dutch fall days.
Full review to come (hopefully) relatively soon.
I was a little hesitant about picking up this novel, after hearing quite a few mixed opinions. Yet after only the first page, I had the suspicion that this might just be my kind of book, and I was proven right. Although a little meandering, and sometimes taking on one too many a theme for such a short book, I deeply enjoyed this tale of two damaged men finding companionship, connection and escape in the secret- and unconventional art of crop-circle making.
Told in gorgeous prose that brings the blistering, dusty summer heat and richly memorable characters to life, The Perfect Golden Circle was a perfect escape from the rainy Dutch fall days.
Full review to come (hopefully) relatively soon.
December 21, 2025
"Perhaps this pattern is the very essence of humankind, and I am just the receptable, the conduit, and together we-you and me-are little more than the midwives tasked with delivering it all the way from a subatomic level and out onto, and into, the land."
This is the story of one summer in the west of England where two damaged men design and create secretly in the middle of the night, intricate crop circles. it is about beauty and the making of art and the desire for one's work to become a legend in its own time.
"And out in the fields on a still summer's night, when the sky is an upturned mirror...a light breeze lifts, causing a sea of platinum needles to shimmer, and strange things happen."
The writing is poetic and is most enjoyed when read slow. I tend to rush through books especially at the end of the year, when my time and attention is demanded by other things. This is a book that refused to be rushed. I could not label it a spiritual quest, not as I would usually encounter in a story but in its doing and its reading the spiritual leaks out in all quadrants. It made me think about nature, the earth, the mystical, and man. All topics that interest me greatly. A great read, not so much for the words on the page but the thoughts which drifted out of them.
This is the story of one summer in the west of England where two damaged men design and create secretly in the middle of the night, intricate crop circles. it is about beauty and the making of art and the desire for one's work to become a legend in its own time.
"And out in the fields on a still summer's night, when the sky is an upturned mirror...a light breeze lifts, causing a sea of platinum needles to shimmer, and strange things happen."
The writing is poetic and is most enjoyed when read slow. I tend to rush through books especially at the end of the year, when my time and attention is demanded by other things. This is a book that refused to be rushed. I could not label it a spiritual quest, not as I would usually encounter in a story but in its doing and its reading the spiritual leaks out in all quadrants. It made me think about nature, the earth, the mystical, and man. All topics that interest me greatly. A great read, not so much for the words on the page but the thoughts which drifted out of them.
July 7, 2022
Two counter-culture friends, bonded together through their art and quirks of personality, undergo an ambitious project of crop circles in ‘89, near London, attempting to outdo anything before constructed.
It’s a quiet, odd kind of story. Their relationship is very endearing. Neither militant or full-on hippies, but more concerned with what the book feels to be attempting to convey: Anyone with a radical idea can add another layer of mythos to culture. In this case in a very literal sense, as they use the land in a harmless way to produce art that hopefully entices people to question the nature of their society, and what they think they know about the world. Hoping to unconventionally and originally revolutionary, leaving an indelible mark.
Of course, I was a child at that time and I know very well, drop circles. We know that these two people constructing what was often said to be impossible, did leave a mark. But it’s also fiction, of course. But an interesting thought in relation to what crop circles beg to ask of the viewer. There’s some fun meta context reading this now, and I’m sure in the future.
This won’t be for everyone though. The prose are gorgeous. Sense of place, then natural world superbly well rendered. There’s no real plot other than the two working up to their final, grand design. The “conflicts” they encounter aren’t really that, and exactly what you’d expect. The ending does his a good note. But it certainly isn’t interested in telling anything other than a humble story of two humble people, stepped on by the government, fighting back in an unusual way. I could see some people saying it’s a book where nothing really happens, no plot, all those things. But plenty happens, it’s just not a conventional story. But not did it blow me away with its unconventionality, either. It’s a solid piece of writing that deserves to be consumed. No more, no less.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.
It’s a quiet, odd kind of story. Their relationship is very endearing. Neither militant or full-on hippies, but more concerned with what the book feels to be attempting to convey: Anyone with a radical idea can add another layer of mythos to culture. In this case in a very literal sense, as they use the land in a harmless way to produce art that hopefully entices people to question the nature of their society, and what they think they know about the world. Hoping to unconventionally and originally revolutionary, leaving an indelible mark.
Of course, I was a child at that time and I know very well, drop circles. We know that these two people constructing what was often said to be impossible, did leave a mark. But it’s also fiction, of course. But an interesting thought in relation to what crop circles beg to ask of the viewer. There’s some fun meta context reading this now, and I’m sure in the future.
This won’t be for everyone though. The prose are gorgeous. Sense of place, then natural world superbly well rendered. There’s no real plot other than the two working up to their final, grand design. The “conflicts” they encounter aren’t really that, and exactly what you’d expect. The ending does his a good note. But it certainly isn’t interested in telling anything other than a humble story of two humble people, stepped on by the government, fighting back in an unusual way. I could see some people saying it’s a book where nothing really happens, no plot, all those things. But plenty happens, it’s just not a conventional story. But not did it blow me away with its unconventionality, either. It’s a solid piece of writing that deserves to be consumed. No more, no less.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.
November 3, 2023
Somewhat spoilerish review
I tried multiple times to read the Offing by Myers as many people raved about it. I just couldn't get into it.
I tried Cuddy as an audiobook, and upon noticing the setting, I promptly dropped it.
So reading this was a kind of last attempt at seeing what's all the fuss about.
Objectively, Myers can write. Subjectively, I just couldn't connect, I often found myself reading but not taking anything in.
The protagonists of this short novel (something that goes in the plus category) are two men who are a bit different: Calvert is a Falkland Islands veteran with a good case of PTSD, Redbone is an anti-authoritarian, musician of sorts. It's 1989, somewhere in England. The two friends have plans and goals - to make crop circles. Calvert is the logistics man, Redbone is the designer/creator of those crop circles that get more and more sophisticated. They do it at night, it's all anonymous. Of course, (insert rolling eyes) people and the media wonder if they're done by extra-terrestrial beings.
Sorry to spoil it for you, but that's pretty much all there is about this novel, plus a few tidbits about climate change, and class.
In conclusion, this was a short novel, the writing was decent, the story didn't feel like was going anywhere. Unfortunately, I didn't care about the two protagonists, and I don't think it's because books about men usually bore me.
I'll put this down as it's me, it's not you.
I tried multiple times to read the Offing by Myers as many people raved about it. I just couldn't get into it.
I tried Cuddy as an audiobook, and upon noticing the setting, I promptly dropped it.
So reading this was a kind of last attempt at seeing what's all the fuss about.
Objectively, Myers can write. Subjectively, I just couldn't connect, I often found myself reading but not taking anything in.
The protagonists of this short novel (something that goes in the plus category) are two men who are a bit different: Calvert is a Falkland Islands veteran with a good case of PTSD, Redbone is an anti-authoritarian, musician of sorts. It's 1989, somewhere in England. The two friends have plans and goals - to make crop circles. Calvert is the logistics man, Redbone is the designer/creator of those crop circles that get more and more sophisticated. They do it at night, it's all anonymous. Of course, (insert rolling eyes) people and the media wonder if they're done by extra-terrestrial beings.
Sorry to spoil it for you, but that's pretty much all there is about this novel, plus a few tidbits about climate change, and class.
In conclusion, this was a short novel, the writing was decent, the story didn't feel like was going anywhere. Unfortunately, I didn't care about the two protagonists, and I don't think it's because books about men usually bore me.
I'll put this down as it's me, it's not you.
abandoned-dnf
June 5, 2024DNF'd @ 26% - Argh! I'm getting a bit angry lately, but I'm unsure if it's the books I'm angry with, or myself. It seems I've abandoned several books lately. I don't like doing that, but neither do I like to waste time with a book I'm not enjoying! So here I go again.😕
It's too bad because the concept of this novel sounded so good! On summer nights, two misfit friends sneak onto rural farmland to create elaborately-designed crop circles among the ripening wheat. They've been surreptitiously doing it for years. The townsfolk, and media far and wide, believe them to be the work of aliens. Sounds kind of intriguing, right? And the author is quite good! But the problem with this book—in my opinion, at least—is that the author really went overboard on the flowery prose. I like beautiful prose as much as the next person, but he laid it on way too thick. I even started to feel a little bit embarrassed! It started to feel very inappropriate—to the point where I just couldn't read any more of it. But you never know. I might give it another try one of these days.🤷♀️
It's too bad because the concept of this novel sounded so good! On summer nights, two misfit friends sneak onto rural farmland to create elaborately-designed crop circles among the ripening wheat. They've been surreptitiously doing it for years. The townsfolk, and media far and wide, believe them to be the work of aliens. Sounds kind of intriguing, right? And the author is quite good! But the problem with this book—in my opinion, at least—is that the author really went overboard on the flowery prose. I like beautiful prose as much as the next person, but he laid it on way too thick. I even started to feel a little bit embarrassed! It started to feel very inappropriate—to the point where I just couldn't read any more of it. But you never know. I might give it another try one of these days.🤷♀️
June 13, 2022
Benjamin Myers "The Perfect Golden Circle"
I'm not often moved to say this but this is simply a stunningly beautiful book. Ben Myers' style is just exquisite. He has written so many different sorts of books and The Offing was a real departure from the darkness of earlier works. Perfect Golden Circle is much more like Offing in that the story is much gentler; there are few dark corners here.
It tells the story of Calvert, an ex soldier who hates war and Redbone, a free man in every sense of the word. Together they have created the perfect partnership of Redbone's vision and Calvert's expertise to create the most intricate and intriguing crop circles (without harming the crops I might add before someone starts going on about crop destruction for art's sake). Each chapter covers a pattern whilst telling enough of their background stories for you to feel totally invested by the final chapter "Honeycomb Double Helix".
In parts the story has laugh out loud lines and in others my heart was in my mouth for fear of them being caught or vandalism ruining the perfection. It is heartwarming and heartbreaking.
Very highly recommended. I'm just sad I've finished it (I bought it when it was first published but put off reading it because I knew I'd be bereft once it was done).
There should be way more stars for me to award this. Just read it!
I'm not often moved to say this but this is simply a stunningly beautiful book. Ben Myers' style is just exquisite. He has written so many different sorts of books and The Offing was a real departure from the darkness of earlier works. Perfect Golden Circle is much more like Offing in that the story is much gentler; there are few dark corners here.
It tells the story of Calvert, an ex soldier who hates war and Redbone, a free man in every sense of the word. Together they have created the perfect partnership of Redbone's vision and Calvert's expertise to create the most intricate and intriguing crop circles (without harming the crops I might add before someone starts going on about crop destruction for art's sake). Each chapter covers a pattern whilst telling enough of their background stories for you to feel totally invested by the final chapter "Honeycomb Double Helix".
In parts the story has laugh out loud lines and in others my heart was in my mouth for fear of them being caught or vandalism ruining the perfection. It is heartwarming and heartbreaking.
Very highly recommended. I'm just sad I've finished it (I bought it when it was first published but put off reading it because I knew I'd be bereft once it was done).
There should be way more stars for me to award this. Just read it!
October 30, 2021
Eine ruhige Geschichte, die mir überraschend gut gefallen hat, sowohl vom Thema Kornkreise und Natur her als auch insbesondere in Bezug auf die Figuren. Redbone und Calvert haben ihre ganz eigenen Motive und Handlungsweisen, auch ihr Umgang miteinander hat mir gefallen. „Der perfekte Kreis“ sagt ganz schön viel aus.
Manche Beschreibungen fand ich wieder etwas ausufernd, aber insgesamt kam mir der Schreibstil, den man durchaus wiedererkennt, im Vergleich zum für mich überladenen Beginn von „Offene See“ gemäßigter und damit noch schöner vor.
Manche Beschreibungen fand ich wieder etwas ausufernd, aber insgesamt kam mir der Schreibstil, den man durchaus wiedererkennt, im Vergleich zum für mich überladenen Beginn von „Offene See“ gemäßigter und damit noch schöner vor.
September 3, 2021
Redbone und Calvert, zwei blasse Figuren die aus unerklärten Gründen Freunde sind, machen Nachts heimlich Kornkreise. Statt einer klassischen Rezension lasse ich mal ein paar Zitate hier, an denen sich jeder dann selbst ein Bild machen kann, ob das Buch dem persönlichen Geschmack entspricht:
"Redbone trinkt gierig. Seine Kehle ist eine Sanddüne in der Sahara, ein trockenes, steiniges Flussbett. Er ist so durstig, dass er das Wasser schluckt, als hinge das Leben seiner ungeborenen Nachkommen davon ab. Er leert die halbe Feldflasche mit wenigen Schlucken, damit seine nicht existierenden Kinder eines Tages leben werden."
Oder auch: "Als eine grosse Wolke vorbeizieht, wird das Licht flüssig, als würde geschmolzenes Metall über das Land gegossen. Hoch über den Männern kreisen und lodern und brennen Planeten, und unter dem imaginären Zwergmond des ruhigen silbernen Getreides huschen kleine Säugetiere durch das subterranen Reich."
Tut mir sehr Leid, aber 224 Seiten davon ist mir zu viel.
"Redbone trinkt gierig. Seine Kehle ist eine Sanddüne in der Sahara, ein trockenes, steiniges Flussbett. Er ist so durstig, dass er das Wasser schluckt, als hinge das Leben seiner ungeborenen Nachkommen davon ab. Er leert die halbe Feldflasche mit wenigen Schlucken, damit seine nicht existierenden Kinder eines Tages leben werden."
Oder auch: "Als eine grosse Wolke vorbeizieht, wird das Licht flüssig, als würde geschmolzenes Metall über das Land gegossen. Hoch über den Männern kreisen und lodern und brennen Planeten, und unter dem imaginären Zwergmond des ruhigen silbernen Getreides huschen kleine Säugetiere durch das subterranen Reich."
Tut mir sehr Leid, aber 224 Seiten davon ist mir zu viel.
January 13, 2022
Ben Myers’ new novel, The Perfect Circle (Bloomsbury), is out in May 2022 and I did everything I could to get my hands on a proof copy – thank you Bloomsbury. This is a handsome story set in the late eighties about two men who meet up at regular intervals to plan the creation of increasingly complex crop circles in the south west of England one hot, dry summer. One is ex-forces, with the issues that seeing live action brings, who plans the locations and logistics. The other is the flawed creative who dreams up the wonderfully named designs which will culminate in the Honeycomb Double Helix if all goes to plan. It’s classic Myers’ territory, involving male characters and their shortcomings, friendships and their interaction with the land and nature that surrounds them. Very different characters, but with all the charm of the relationship in The Detectorists, and the satisfaction of being the best at one thing that they choose to do, despite the difficulties that they face. I loved this book, and the new waves of Ben Myers fans that build with every book will too.
September 17, 2021
England, Ende der Achtziger: Redbone und Calvert, seit langem befreundet, haben nur ein Ziel - sie will den perfekten Kornkreis erschaffen. Unerkannt reisen sie durchs Land, schaffen neue Kreise, die allen mysteriös erscheinen und die viele für dumme Jungenstreiche halten. Dabei erfahren sie viel über sich selbst, über Land und Leute.
Der Kreis mag vielleicht immer perfekter werden, die Geschichte war es für mich leider gar nicht. Ich fand mich nur schwer in sie hinein. Redbone und Calvert konnte ich lange nicht auseinanderhalten und fand ihre Beziehung auch merkwürdig (wie kann man lange nicht wissen, wie ein guter Freund eigentlich heißt?) Ich konnte auch den Sinn der Geschichte nicht recht erkennen. Vielleicht war mir das Buch auch zu sehr ein Männerbuch? Für mich war es leider nicht die richtige Lektüre, auch wenn das Cover wunderschön ist.
Der Kreis mag vielleicht immer perfekter werden, die Geschichte war es für mich leider gar nicht. Ich fand mich nur schwer in sie hinein. Redbone und Calvert konnte ich lange nicht auseinanderhalten und fand ihre Beziehung auch merkwürdig (wie kann man lange nicht wissen, wie ein guter Freund eigentlich heißt?) Ich konnte auch den Sinn der Geschichte nicht recht erkennen. Vielleicht war mir das Buch auch zu sehr ein Männerbuch? Für mich war es leider nicht die richtige Lektüre, auch wenn das Cover wunderschön ist.
April 7, 2022
Perfection.
An ode to friendship, to beauty and art, to freedom, and to the land. Exceptional.
Just don't ask me what my favourite Ben Myers book is.
An ode to friendship, to beauty and art, to freedom, and to the land. Exceptional.
Just don't ask me what my favourite Ben Myers book is.
June 13, 2022
Set in rural England, 1989, The Perfect Golden Circle tells the story of two men who set out over the course of a summer to form elaborate crop circle patterns in the wheat fields under the cover of darkness. As their circles become increasingly intricate, their work gathers an international cult like following, pushing them to further their designs beyond anything ever seen before. Calvert is a Falklands veteran, suffering post traumatic stress, whilst Redbone is a free-wheeling traveller of sorts, a musician who has wandered Europe with various small-time bands, living a life of protest and substance enhanced contemplation. Two vastly different men, the most unlikely of friendships.
This is the second novel by Benjamin Myers that I have read, Beastings being the first. The Perfect Golden Circle couldn’t be more different to Beastings, which was far darker and written in a completely different style. Yet, the beauty of Benjamin’s writing persists across both novels. I really do need to read more of his work, I love the way he writes. Take this, for example, which is about an eclipse:
‘A dark crescent spreads like a silent malevolent force across the mottled greys and whites of the sullen moon’s countenance, its surface a curious patina. Redbone and Calvert stop what they are doing and stare upwards until their necks ache, not daring to drag their eyes away from the empyrean display. The blank clock-like face fades from view as the black shutter of the earth’s shadow covers it to create a total lunar eclipse, and for a few seconds it feels as if the darkness will be unending and absolute. Momentarily the land is an undeveloped photograph and time is rendered meaningless, and both Redbone and Calvert are aware that they are part of a long lineage of men and women who have stood in these very fields in rapt astonishment for thousands of years, infatuated and intrigued by the magic of the sky at night, and feeling the smallness of their lives and the preciousness of their planetary home.’
Themes of British colonisation weigh heavily throughout the narrative, informed mostly by Calvert’s experiences of fighting in the Falklands war. I found this interesting within a contemporary novel, the exploration of colonialism, that is. Hand in hand with this is Calvert’s feelings against war and his disdain for the British aristocracy. Woven together, it makes for a powerful sentiment encapsulated within a poetically beautiful novel about fighting trauma and power in the most imaginative of ways.
‘It means that, once, we looked to the horizon, and we wondered what lay beyond, and then set out for it. We colonised and plundered, and then when innocent people had been slaughtered and their resources accrued, we returned with riches. Then we turned inwards to slowly fester and moil in our bitterness for a century or two, fearful that someone would one day do the same to us. Believe me, I know because I’ve been a part of it, but never again. Never again. The sea is a border, a boundary, and living on an island like this makes us think we’re something special. But we’re not. We’re just scared, that’s all. We’re scared of the world. And that breeds arrogance and ignorance, and ignorance signals the death of decency.’
Here, Calvert is talking to Redbone about what an island mentality is within the context of British colonialism. His bitterness, as an SAS fighter within the British military is evident. What he gains from creating crop circles with Redbone in the dead of the night becomes more apparent as the novel progresses. It is a form of therapy for him, something to focus his traumatic mind upon, a way of setting that aside for this.
I felt an overwhelming sense of much of this novel being an ode to the environment and the ecosystem, climate change a looming threat throughout the heat wave of the English summer of 1989 that is the backdrop to this story. Indeed, Redbone and Calvert speak of theories of melting icecaps and a future planet that is too hot to inhabit. Back then, our naivety is striking to revisit. There are some utterly beguiling passages about nature and the connectivity of all living things. I sensed Benjamin’s passion for this, over and over.
‘All living things are connected between seed and sod, and sod and sky, and when one component in the chain of production is altered, ailing or inefficient the entire ecosystem suffers. It is not enough to just produce oilseed rape, even in surplus, and the wheat fields whisper their desperate thirst. The barley meadows dream of better days. Lethargic cows swat at flies that gather at the saline pools of their eyes with whiplike tails, and tick-stricken sheep seek the corners where hedgerows cast short shadows, masticating with urgency. And the worms lie slow-squirming into expiration beneath the noonday sun.’
And what of the crop circles? For Calvert and Redbone, it is their true purpose. The circles themselves part of something more, something hopeful within a warring and dying world.
‘People just want to believe in something bigger than all this. Something beyond. It takes them away from the mundane details of their tiny lives. You can’t blame them.’
No, indeed, you can’t. The Perfect Golden Circle is sublime, it reels you in and caresses you with its poetically beautiful prose. Highly recommended for fans of literary fiction and eco-literature. I thought it was divine.
‘Calvert looks at him. He looks at him until it feels like the crops have withered, the seas have risen and the sun has burned itself out to an ashen cinder. He shakes his head. “I do wonder about you sometimes.”’
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
This is the second novel by Benjamin Myers that I have read, Beastings being the first. The Perfect Golden Circle couldn’t be more different to Beastings, which was far darker and written in a completely different style. Yet, the beauty of Benjamin’s writing persists across both novels. I really do need to read more of his work, I love the way he writes. Take this, for example, which is about an eclipse:
‘A dark crescent spreads like a silent malevolent force across the mottled greys and whites of the sullen moon’s countenance, its surface a curious patina. Redbone and Calvert stop what they are doing and stare upwards until their necks ache, not daring to drag their eyes away from the empyrean display. The blank clock-like face fades from view as the black shutter of the earth’s shadow covers it to create a total lunar eclipse, and for a few seconds it feels as if the darkness will be unending and absolute. Momentarily the land is an undeveloped photograph and time is rendered meaningless, and both Redbone and Calvert are aware that they are part of a long lineage of men and women who have stood in these very fields in rapt astonishment for thousands of years, infatuated and intrigued by the magic of the sky at night, and feeling the smallness of their lives and the preciousness of their planetary home.’
Themes of British colonisation weigh heavily throughout the narrative, informed mostly by Calvert’s experiences of fighting in the Falklands war. I found this interesting within a contemporary novel, the exploration of colonialism, that is. Hand in hand with this is Calvert’s feelings against war and his disdain for the British aristocracy. Woven together, it makes for a powerful sentiment encapsulated within a poetically beautiful novel about fighting trauma and power in the most imaginative of ways.
‘It means that, once, we looked to the horizon, and we wondered what lay beyond, and then set out for it. We colonised and plundered, and then when innocent people had been slaughtered and their resources accrued, we returned with riches. Then we turned inwards to slowly fester and moil in our bitterness for a century or two, fearful that someone would one day do the same to us. Believe me, I know because I’ve been a part of it, but never again. Never again. The sea is a border, a boundary, and living on an island like this makes us think we’re something special. But we’re not. We’re just scared, that’s all. We’re scared of the world. And that breeds arrogance and ignorance, and ignorance signals the death of decency.’
Here, Calvert is talking to Redbone about what an island mentality is within the context of British colonialism. His bitterness, as an SAS fighter within the British military is evident. What he gains from creating crop circles with Redbone in the dead of the night becomes more apparent as the novel progresses. It is a form of therapy for him, something to focus his traumatic mind upon, a way of setting that aside for this.
I felt an overwhelming sense of much of this novel being an ode to the environment and the ecosystem, climate change a looming threat throughout the heat wave of the English summer of 1989 that is the backdrop to this story. Indeed, Redbone and Calvert speak of theories of melting icecaps and a future planet that is too hot to inhabit. Back then, our naivety is striking to revisit. There are some utterly beguiling passages about nature and the connectivity of all living things. I sensed Benjamin’s passion for this, over and over.
‘All living things are connected between seed and sod, and sod and sky, and when one component in the chain of production is altered, ailing or inefficient the entire ecosystem suffers. It is not enough to just produce oilseed rape, even in surplus, and the wheat fields whisper their desperate thirst. The barley meadows dream of better days. Lethargic cows swat at flies that gather at the saline pools of their eyes with whiplike tails, and tick-stricken sheep seek the corners where hedgerows cast short shadows, masticating with urgency. And the worms lie slow-squirming into expiration beneath the noonday sun.’
And what of the crop circles? For Calvert and Redbone, it is their true purpose. The circles themselves part of something more, something hopeful within a warring and dying world.
‘People just want to believe in something bigger than all this. Something beyond. It takes them away from the mundane details of their tiny lives. You can’t blame them.’
No, indeed, you can’t. The Perfect Golden Circle is sublime, it reels you in and caresses you with its poetically beautiful prose. Highly recommended for fans of literary fiction and eco-literature. I thought it was divine.
‘Calvert looks at him. He looks at him until it feels like the crops have withered, the seas have risen and the sun has burned itself out to an ashen cinder. He shakes his head. “I do wonder about you sometimes.”’
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
March 7, 2022
Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power.
Benjamin Myers is in my opinion one of the greatest British voices in fiction. His previous works Beastings, The Gallows Pole, Male Tears, The Offing, Pig Iron showcase his vast talent and his continued development as a writer, each book is different and each contains lightning in a bottle - if you've not discovered Myers' work yet, I urge you to do so, he's a national treasure.
Myers' works can be classified as many things; historical fiction, nature writing, literary fiction, contemporary whilst also being challenging, raw, poetic and emotionally led. His new offering 'The Perfect Golden Circle' shows a culmination in all of these areas and Myers delivers a story that has a huge heart beating at the very centre of this particular golden circle.
When the book was announced and when a copy of it found its way to my house I was delighted, I'm always happy when a new Myers book lands. This one came off the back of Male Tears - a short story collection I wasn't bowled over by, and felt that there could have been more exploration of the themes the blurb for the collection promised (a review of this can be found here).
After reading the blurb for this book, honestly, I thought what have we got here. Two guys who go around the English countryside crafting crop circles. I have to say it wasn't the most promising of blurbs, it sounded pretty boring to me (someone who doesn't really care for those things), and I wondered if I was going to engage in the book, but I'd of course read it, it's Benjamin 'fricking' Myers of course, I would.
All of those fears and worries I had about the book were allayed in the first few paragraphs. Myers had me under his beguiling spell in an instant. The opening of the book is utterly gripping and perfectly sets the tone for what we are about to encounter. From his choice of language, to how beautifully he renders the countryside and nature, to how he wound the threads of the story around me so tightly and so quickly that I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. I was locked in and this allowed Myers to showcase perfectly and masterfully why he is the best British writer working at the moment. I'd go as far as to say Myers is the best British writer of a generation!
England, 1989. Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men – traumatized Falklands veteran Calvert, and affable, chaotic Redbone – set out nightly in a clapped-out camper van to undertake an extraordinary project.
The glue that holds this story together is the relationship and development of our two protagonists. We're treated to a small cast, two ageing men. Calvert, who is a traumatized veteran and Redbone a chaotic, rogue who is troubled in his own way by the visions he has which they transfer to the canvas of the fields in their nightly raids. We get to know these characters over the course of the book, we walk alongside them as they chat the fat. They were strangers at the story's opening and by the conclusion, they have become dear friends and we are completely and utterly invested in their lives.
The thing about The Perfect Golden Circle is that it is all-consuming and in a way that shows the masterful talent Myers has as a raconteur. From the very moment I opened the cover I was a captive to the story, the rest of the world dissolved around me and it was only me, Calvert and Redbone. That place of peace and reflection is something that is hard to discover in a modern society where our chaotic lives have so many trappings for our time and attention. But I can honestly say that this book was therapeutic in a way, it gave me the escapism that I desperately craved and I loved every moment of it, it was an opportunity to let the world's troubles and my own busy life slip away whilst I basked in Myers words and beautiful story.
I was transported to those fields, I could smell the summer air, felt the mud soft one moment and then get hard and cracked the next under my feet. The touch of stalks of wheat as they blew in the breeze and grazed my arms. The sweat on my skin as the sun beats down on me which was soon followed by having my skin cooled by the cold night as the moon washed everything in its silvery brilliance. I could imagine perfectly the wildlife and countryside around me, which Myers paints so vividly and with such detail that it made me appreciate how beautiful the world is and the next time I went out I looked longingly at things I'd previously overlooked or grown tired of; nature, plants and my surroundings were brought to life again in a way where I was fully aware of the beauty of the world around me.
But I also was part of this friendship that you read about, I was there during their conversations, I was present. I learnt about their lives, their fears and anxieties, when they were pained I was pained. I felt their frustrations and shared them too. Myers brought me into that field, introduced me to Redbone and Calvert and want to thank him for that, I want to praise him for that... there is nothing greater than this feeling from a book and this one will live long in the memory.
The Perfect Golden Circle is a triumph of a book, showcasing a writer at his very best. There is a huge heart beating in this magical story. A heartfelt story that is transformative and transportive, pick it up today and enjoy spending time with two dear friends!
Benjamin Myers is in my opinion one of the greatest British voices in fiction. His previous works Beastings, The Gallows Pole, Male Tears, The Offing, Pig Iron showcase his vast talent and his continued development as a writer, each book is different and each contains lightning in a bottle - if you've not discovered Myers' work yet, I urge you to do so, he's a national treasure.
Myers' works can be classified as many things; historical fiction, nature writing, literary fiction, contemporary whilst also being challenging, raw, poetic and emotionally led. His new offering 'The Perfect Golden Circle' shows a culmination in all of these areas and Myers delivers a story that has a huge heart beating at the very centre of this particular golden circle.
When the book was announced and when a copy of it found its way to my house I was delighted, I'm always happy when a new Myers book lands. This one came off the back of Male Tears - a short story collection I wasn't bowled over by, and felt that there could have been more exploration of the themes the blurb for the collection promised (a review of this can be found here).
After reading the blurb for this book, honestly, I thought what have we got here. Two guys who go around the English countryside crafting crop circles. I have to say it wasn't the most promising of blurbs, it sounded pretty boring to me (someone who doesn't really care for those things), and I wondered if I was going to engage in the book, but I'd of course read it, it's Benjamin 'fricking' Myers of course, I would.
All of those fears and worries I had about the book were allayed in the first few paragraphs. Myers had me under his beguiling spell in an instant. The opening of the book is utterly gripping and perfectly sets the tone for what we are about to encounter. From his choice of language, to how beautifully he renders the countryside and nature, to how he wound the threads of the story around me so tightly and so quickly that I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. I was locked in and this allowed Myers to showcase perfectly and masterfully why he is the best British writer working at the moment. I'd go as far as to say Myers is the best British writer of a generation!
England, 1989. Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men – traumatized Falklands veteran Calvert, and affable, chaotic Redbone – set out nightly in a clapped-out camper van to undertake an extraordinary project.
The glue that holds this story together is the relationship and development of our two protagonists. We're treated to a small cast, two ageing men. Calvert, who is a traumatized veteran and Redbone a chaotic, rogue who is troubled in his own way by the visions he has which they transfer to the canvas of the fields in their nightly raids. We get to know these characters over the course of the book, we walk alongside them as they chat the fat. They were strangers at the story's opening and by the conclusion, they have become dear friends and we are completely and utterly invested in their lives.
The thing about The Perfect Golden Circle is that it is all-consuming and in a way that shows the masterful talent Myers has as a raconteur. From the very moment I opened the cover I was a captive to the story, the rest of the world dissolved around me and it was only me, Calvert and Redbone. That place of peace and reflection is something that is hard to discover in a modern society where our chaotic lives have so many trappings for our time and attention. But I can honestly say that this book was therapeutic in a way, it gave me the escapism that I desperately craved and I loved every moment of it, it was an opportunity to let the world's troubles and my own busy life slip away whilst I basked in Myers words and beautiful story.
I was transported to those fields, I could smell the summer air, felt the mud soft one moment and then get hard and cracked the next under my feet. The touch of stalks of wheat as they blew in the breeze and grazed my arms. The sweat on my skin as the sun beats down on me which was soon followed by having my skin cooled by the cold night as the moon washed everything in its silvery brilliance. I could imagine perfectly the wildlife and countryside around me, which Myers paints so vividly and with such detail that it made me appreciate how beautiful the world is and the next time I went out I looked longingly at things I'd previously overlooked or grown tired of; nature, plants and my surroundings were brought to life again in a way where I was fully aware of the beauty of the world around me.
But I also was part of this friendship that you read about, I was there during their conversations, I was present. I learnt about their lives, their fears and anxieties, when they were pained I was pained. I felt their frustrations and shared them too. Myers brought me into that field, introduced me to Redbone and Calvert and want to thank him for that, I want to praise him for that... there is nothing greater than this feeling from a book and this one will live long in the memory.
The Perfect Golden Circle is a triumph of a book, showcasing a writer at his very best. There is a huge heart beating in this magical story. A heartfelt story that is transformative and transportive, pick it up today and enjoy spending time with two dear friends!
September 24, 2021
Och Benjamin, was hast du nur mit mir gemacht?
Dein erstes Buch war für mich ein Lebenslesehighlight und jetzt, mit „Der perfekte Kreis“, kann ich leider so gar nichts anfangen.
Ich kam nicht mit den Protagonisten zurecht, der Sinn hinter allem erschloss sich mir auch nicht und die leisen Töne, die ich sonst so liebe, waren selbst mir zu fad.
Ich hab die Hoffnung, dass es einfach der falsche Zeitpunkt für das Buch war, denn der Schreibstil war trotz allem wunderschön poetisch, rund und heimelig . Und jetzt beginnt erneut das sehnsüchtig Warten auf das Nächste Buch von dir.
Ich hoffe, dass wir da wieder besser zueinander passen.
Dein erstes Buch war für mich ein Lebenslesehighlight und jetzt, mit „Der perfekte Kreis“, kann ich leider so gar nichts anfangen.
Ich kam nicht mit den Protagonisten zurecht, der Sinn hinter allem erschloss sich mir auch nicht und die leisen Töne, die ich sonst so liebe, waren selbst mir zu fad.
Ich hab die Hoffnung, dass es einfach der falsche Zeitpunkt für das Buch war, denn der Schreibstil war trotz allem wunderschön poetisch, rund und heimelig . Und jetzt beginnt erneut das sehnsüchtig Warten auf das Nächste Buch von dir.
Ich hoffe, dass wir da wieder besser zueinander passen.
October 22, 2022
This was disappointing.
I think the premise of the story was great, but the frouffy and overly floral language actually detracted from the story. Grandiose descriptions and excessively poetic phrases dampened the development of the relationship between the two protagonists and totally diminished the impact of what was being done here.
Very dissatisfying.
I think the premise of the story was great, but the frouffy and overly floral language actually detracted from the story. Grandiose descriptions and excessively poetic phrases dampened the development of the relationship between the two protagonists and totally diminished the impact of what was being done here.
Very dissatisfying.
May 12, 2022
Pretty good, though the characters felt a bit flat to me and I would have liked the structure to be a bit more diverse.
Thank you Penguin Random House and Edelweiss for the ARC.
Thank you Penguin Random House and Edelweiss for the ARC.
September 23, 2021
Poetische Liebeserklärung an die Natur
Benjamin Myers hat mich mit seinem Roman „Offene See“ bereits so begeistern können, dass ich erfreut war, zu sehen, dass es mit „Der perfekte Kreis“ (Dumont-Verlag, Übersetzung: Ulrike Wasel und Klaus Timmermann, die bereits bei „Offene See“ großartige Arbeit geleistet haben!) ein neues Buch von ihm gibt.
Redbone und Calvert sind zwei Freunde, wie sie unterschiedlicher nicht sein können. Aber das ist ja – zumeist – eine gute Basis für eine Freundschaft. Denn bei allen Unterschieden gibt es natürlich auch Gemeinsamkeiten; so ihre Liebe zur Natur, zur Freiheit – und zur Erschaffung von Kornkreisen. Sie wollen den „perfekten Kreis“ gestalten, obwohl Myers seinen Protagonisten Redbone sagen lässt:
„Den perfekten Kreis. Den könnten wir niemals hinbekommen. Er existiert nicht. Ehrlich gesagt, ich glaube, nichts was von Menschen gemacht wird, kann je perfekt sein.“ (S. 107)
Trotzdem verfolgen die Freunde ihr Ziel – unter strenger Einhaltung eines selbstauferlegten Kodex, der ihren Respekt und die Liebe zur Natur unterstreicht. Denn auch wenn es vordergründig um die Kornkreise und die Freundschaft der beiden Männer geht: Benjamin Myers macht aufmerksam – auf Missstände im Naturschutz (Stichwort Monokultur), auf Englands Kolonisierungswahn
„Wir haben kolonisiert und geplündert, und dann, wenn wir unschuldige Menschen abgeschlachtet und ihrer Schätze beraubt hatten, sind wir mit Reichtümern heimgekehrt. […] Das Meer ist eine Grenze, eine Begrenzung, und da wir auf einer Insel leben, bilden wir uns ein, wir wären etwas Besonderes. Aber das sind wir nicht. Wir haben bloß Angst, mehr nicht. Wir haben Angst vor der Welt. Und das erzeugt Arroganz und Ignoranz, und Ignoranz ist der Tod des Anstands.“ (S. 67)
und amüsiert sich über die Menschen, die bedingungslos an UFOs und Außerirdische glauben
„Die Menschen wollen einfach an etwas Größeres als das hier glauben. Etwas Jenseitiges. Das lenkt sie von dem banalen Alltag ihres kleinen Lebens ab. Kann man verstehen.“ (S. 79)
Während England und die Welt (im Text sind einige (fiktive) Zeitungsartikel abgedruckt) im heißen Sommer 1989 rätselt, woher die geheimnisvollen Kornkreise stammen, die von Woche zu Woche immer aufwendiger werden, arbeiten Redbone und Calvert an ihrem Meisterwerk – der „Honigwabe-Doppelhelix“. Ob die beiden es schaffen – nun, das verrate ich an dieser Stelle nicht *g*.
Trotz der wunderbar poetischen Sprache, der Liebe zur Natur, die sich in vielen Formulierungen findet, den Landschaftsbeschreibungen, die Lust auf einen Besuch in England machen, hat mir „Der perfekte Kreis“ nicht ganz so gut gefallen wie „Offene See“. Vielleicht sind mir Redbone und Calvert nicht nah genug gekommen – so genau kann ich es gar nicht sagen, was mir an dem Roman fehlt, dass ich dieses Mal nicht die Höchstnote zücke. Aber eines ist gewiss: Benjamin Myers ist mit „Der perfekte Kreis“ verdammt nah am perfekten Roman (obwohl es den wahrscheinlich auch nicht gibt – ebenso wie den perfekten Kreis *g*).
4 (mit Hochglanz) polierte Sterne!
©kingofmusic
Benjamin Myers hat mich mit seinem Roman „Offene See“ bereits so begeistern können, dass ich erfreut war, zu sehen, dass es mit „Der perfekte Kreis“ (Dumont-Verlag, Übersetzung: Ulrike Wasel und Klaus Timmermann, die bereits bei „Offene See“ großartige Arbeit geleistet haben!) ein neues Buch von ihm gibt.
Redbone und Calvert sind zwei Freunde, wie sie unterschiedlicher nicht sein können. Aber das ist ja – zumeist – eine gute Basis für eine Freundschaft. Denn bei allen Unterschieden gibt es natürlich auch Gemeinsamkeiten; so ihre Liebe zur Natur, zur Freiheit – und zur Erschaffung von Kornkreisen. Sie wollen den „perfekten Kreis“ gestalten, obwohl Myers seinen Protagonisten Redbone sagen lässt:
„Den perfekten Kreis. Den könnten wir niemals hinbekommen. Er existiert nicht. Ehrlich gesagt, ich glaube, nichts was von Menschen gemacht wird, kann je perfekt sein.“ (S. 107)
Trotzdem verfolgen die Freunde ihr Ziel – unter strenger Einhaltung eines selbstauferlegten Kodex, der ihren Respekt und die Liebe zur Natur unterstreicht. Denn auch wenn es vordergründig um die Kornkreise und die Freundschaft der beiden Männer geht: Benjamin Myers macht aufmerksam – auf Missstände im Naturschutz (Stichwort Monokultur), auf Englands Kolonisierungswahn
„Wir haben kolonisiert und geplündert, und dann, wenn wir unschuldige Menschen abgeschlachtet und ihrer Schätze beraubt hatten, sind wir mit Reichtümern heimgekehrt. […] Das Meer ist eine Grenze, eine Begrenzung, und da wir auf einer Insel leben, bilden wir uns ein, wir wären etwas Besonderes. Aber das sind wir nicht. Wir haben bloß Angst, mehr nicht. Wir haben Angst vor der Welt. Und das erzeugt Arroganz und Ignoranz, und Ignoranz ist der Tod des Anstands.“ (S. 67)
und amüsiert sich über die Menschen, die bedingungslos an UFOs und Außerirdische glauben
„Die Menschen wollen einfach an etwas Größeres als das hier glauben. Etwas Jenseitiges. Das lenkt sie von dem banalen Alltag ihres kleinen Lebens ab. Kann man verstehen.“ (S. 79)
Während England und die Welt (im Text sind einige (fiktive) Zeitungsartikel abgedruckt) im heißen Sommer 1989 rätselt, woher die geheimnisvollen Kornkreise stammen, die von Woche zu Woche immer aufwendiger werden, arbeiten Redbone und Calvert an ihrem Meisterwerk – der „Honigwabe-Doppelhelix“. Ob die beiden es schaffen – nun, das verrate ich an dieser Stelle nicht *g*.
Trotz der wunderbar poetischen Sprache, der Liebe zur Natur, die sich in vielen Formulierungen findet, den Landschaftsbeschreibungen, die Lust auf einen Besuch in England machen, hat mir „Der perfekte Kreis“ nicht ganz so gut gefallen wie „Offene See“. Vielleicht sind mir Redbone und Calvert nicht nah genug gekommen – so genau kann ich es gar nicht sagen, was mir an dem Roman fehlt, dass ich dieses Mal nicht die Höchstnote zücke. Aber eines ist gewiss: Benjamin Myers ist mit „Der perfekte Kreis“ verdammt nah am perfekten Roman (obwohl es den wahrscheinlich auch nicht gibt – ebenso wie den perfekten Kreis *g*).
4 (mit Hochglanz) polierte Sterne!
©kingofmusic
September 8, 2021
Werbung | Rezensionsexemplar
Es ist ein heißer Sommer 1989 in England und die beiden Freunde Calvert und Redbone haben große Pläne. Beide einsam, traumatisiert und in der Schwebe wollen sie gemeinsam den perfekten Kornkreis erschaffen, ohne dass jemand davon erfährt.
Das Cover ist mit dem goldenen Kreis auf gedecktem Blau ein Blickfang, der perfekt zum Inhalt passt.
Calvert und Redbone wissen nicht viel voneinander aber haben ein gemeinsames Ziel. Während der Arbeit an den Kornkreisen verlieren sie sich immer wieder in Gedanken und Gesprächen, erleben schöne und schlimme Dinge, entwickeln eine tiefe Verbundenheit zu England, zur Natur und der Menschheit. Das Erschaffen dieser Kunst ist für beide fast schon therapeutisch. Mit dem Erlebten und in ihrem Verhalten sind die beiden so gegensätzlich und trotzdem authentisch.
Ganz ruhig schreibt Benjamin Myers die Geschichte dieser Freundschaft. Dabei gibt es immer wieder schöne zwischenmenschliche Momente und wunderschöne Naturbeschreibungen. Gerade aufgrund der ruhigen Geschichte treten die tiefgründigen Gedanken in den Mittelpunkt. Der Schreibstil ist wie bereits im ersten Buch vom Autor angenehm und irgendwie gemütlich, was vor allem auch Ulrike Wasel und Klaus Timmermann als Übersetzenden zu verdanken ist.
Insgesamt ist auch dieses Buch von Benjamin Myers etwas für die Seele. Er setzt jedoch auch ein Gesamtbild der Welt zusammen und hat mir den Freiraum gelassen, mir eine eigene Meinung zu bilden. Auch wenn "Der perfekte Kreis" nicht ganz an "Offene See" herankommt, ist dieses Buch ganz besonders und lesenswert.
Es ist ein heißer Sommer 1989 in England und die beiden Freunde Calvert und Redbone haben große Pläne. Beide einsam, traumatisiert und in der Schwebe wollen sie gemeinsam den perfekten Kornkreis erschaffen, ohne dass jemand davon erfährt.
Das Cover ist mit dem goldenen Kreis auf gedecktem Blau ein Blickfang, der perfekt zum Inhalt passt.
Calvert und Redbone wissen nicht viel voneinander aber haben ein gemeinsames Ziel. Während der Arbeit an den Kornkreisen verlieren sie sich immer wieder in Gedanken und Gesprächen, erleben schöne und schlimme Dinge, entwickeln eine tiefe Verbundenheit zu England, zur Natur und der Menschheit. Das Erschaffen dieser Kunst ist für beide fast schon therapeutisch. Mit dem Erlebten und in ihrem Verhalten sind die beiden so gegensätzlich und trotzdem authentisch.
Ganz ruhig schreibt Benjamin Myers die Geschichte dieser Freundschaft. Dabei gibt es immer wieder schöne zwischenmenschliche Momente und wunderschöne Naturbeschreibungen. Gerade aufgrund der ruhigen Geschichte treten die tiefgründigen Gedanken in den Mittelpunkt. Der Schreibstil ist wie bereits im ersten Buch vom Autor angenehm und irgendwie gemütlich, was vor allem auch Ulrike Wasel und Klaus Timmermann als Übersetzenden zu verdanken ist.
Insgesamt ist auch dieses Buch von Benjamin Myers etwas für die Seele. Er setzt jedoch auch ein Gesamtbild der Welt zusammen und hat mir den Freiraum gelassen, mir eine eigene Meinung zu bilden. Auch wenn "Der perfekte Kreis" nicht ganz an "Offene See" herankommt, ist dieses Buch ganz besonders und lesenswert.
March 4, 2022
Review coming soon - but it was bloody brilliant!
December 3, 2023
Two men, Falklands veteran Calvert and the chaotic Redbone, form crop circles across the English countryside in the middle of the night. Their operation is mystic, almost mafia like in secrecy and stealth, their purpose rendering them folkloric and enigmatic: 'fuel the myth, yes. But strive for beauty, always'.
Much like the works of art the two characters create in farmer's fields, The Perfect Golden Circle is a masterpiece. That said, I've yet to read anything less than sublime from Ben Myers.
Moreover, it's the descriptions of the English countryside that renders Myers' skill unrivalled. Of countryside containing fields so vast that you can walk through them for 'an hour or more and feel like you have not moved an inch'. It's like Thomas Hardy on acid.
Descriptions of nature's duality: the beautiful and the brutal. The taxing droughts of south-west England producing entrails of smeared corpses that mingle with the 'gluey black bitumen', as vulnerable animals wander furtively in search of water. The punishing heat that sees rabbits baking in the 'airless cellars of the earth'.
His deftness in capturing the violence of nature that is always only a cockstride away, microuniverses teeming with brutality beneath bucolic frontages: 'The hedgerows too are violently alive with activity as all around Redbone and Calvert the life cycles of creatures are played out like a tightly choreographed ballet whose only great certainty when the final curtain falls is death for some and survival for others'.
There's so much more to be said about this book but I'd never do it true justice. It's just easier if you read it and experience it for yourself. Outstanding.
Much like the works of art the two characters create in farmer's fields, The Perfect Golden Circle is a masterpiece. That said, I've yet to read anything less than sublime from Ben Myers.
Moreover, it's the descriptions of the English countryside that renders Myers' skill unrivalled. Of countryside containing fields so vast that you can walk through them for 'an hour or more and feel like you have not moved an inch'. It's like Thomas Hardy on acid.
Descriptions of nature's duality: the beautiful and the brutal. The taxing droughts of south-west England producing entrails of smeared corpses that mingle with the 'gluey black bitumen', as vulnerable animals wander furtively in search of water. The punishing heat that sees rabbits baking in the 'airless cellars of the earth'.
His deftness in capturing the violence of nature that is always only a cockstride away, microuniverses teeming with brutality beneath bucolic frontages: 'The hedgerows too are violently alive with activity as all around Redbone and Calvert the life cycles of creatures are played out like a tightly choreographed ballet whose only great certainty when the final curtain falls is death for some and survival for others'.
There's so much more to be said about this book but I'd never do it true justice. It's just easier if you read it and experience it for yourself. Outstanding.
September 16, 2021
Die beiden Männer verbindet ein strenger Codex: Niemals Gewalt anwenden, keinen unnötigen Schaden anrichten, kein Tier verletzen, über ihr Projekt schweigen, keine Spur hinterlassen – und ihre Beziehung auf rein sachlicher Ebene halten. Würde ihre Beziehung sich verändern, wäre das das Ende ihres Projekts. Redbone und Calvert legen im Sommer 1989 in Englands Kornkammer, im Südwesten des Landes, hochanspruchsvolle Kornkreise an. Das Niveau ihrer Installationen ist so anspruchsvoll, dass allein schon ihre Kenntnisse sie verraten könnten. Andere Gefahren sind jene Menschen, die in Kornfeldern des Nachts weniger künstlerischen Tätigkeiten nachgehen, aber auch Kornkreisjäger, die aus materiellen oder ideellen Motiven den rätselhaften Erscheinungen auf der Spur sind. Neben dem rein sportlichen Faktor hat die Aktion therapeutische Wirkung (Calvert ist im Einsatz seiner militärischen Sondereinheit traumatisiert), aber auch anarchistische Züge, da beide Männer ihren Staat als natürlichen Feind ansehen. Für das Jahr der Handlung erweist sich rückblickend das Fundament der Aktion als visionär. Redbone, der zeitweise im VW-Bus wild campt, erkennt, wie abhängig er in diesem heißen Sommer von natürlichen Wasserquellen ist, und der größte Landbesitzer der Gegend erkennt, dass Kornkreise ein Geschäftsmodell sein könnten, um die Instandhaltung seines bröckelnden herrschaftlichen Besitzes zu subventionieren. Als größter Visionär zeigt sich schließlich Calvert, der mit der Aktion der beiden Männer Staat, Krieg, taktisches Denken, Klimawandel und Nahrungsmittelknappheit zu einem grandiosen Kreis verknüpft.
Die Vielfalt der Ebenen und Symbole (Beziehung, Spaßfaktor, Mystik, Klimawandel) verknüpft Benjamin Myers zu einem hochaktuellen Roman, der in Deutschland bereits vor dem englischen Original erscheint..
Die Vielfalt der Ebenen und Symbole (Beziehung, Spaßfaktor, Mystik, Klimawandel) verknüpft Benjamin Myers zu einem hochaktuellen Roman, der in Deutschland bereits vor dem englischen Original erscheint..
May 14, 2022
Another superb novel from Ben Myers. The best writer in the UK for my money. It's always an exciting day for me when there's a new Ben Myers novel published, and he never lets me down. His books are always so varied, and all have a different feel, but all superb. This is a tale of two men who have hooked up to make crop circles under cover of the night. One is a traumatised Falklands veteran, and the other is a crusty punk. We're never told how these two became unlikely friends. Over the course of a summer in '89, they make increasingly elaborate crop circles. A tale of male friendship, trauma, the geography of the land, mythology all told with the most beautiful words. Another winner from Ben. Can't wait to see where he takes us next.
November 22, 2025
The summer of ‘89, the crop circle summer, summer of drought and hysteria; an overheated decade waning into an uncertain transitional time. Ben Myers’s prose is sometimes overheated too, but that’s the only imperfection in this strangely soothing novel that's somehow both grounded and ecstatic. The story takes us behind the curtain of the crop circle as we follow two men on the margins of society — Calvert, a PTSD'd ex-SAS guy, and Redbone, a disillusioned crusty — through their season of increasingly extravagant clandestine field creations in deepest Wiltshire. Each new and more elaborate circle ratchets the fervid public atmosphere a little further, as reflected in the interspersed clippings from the local, then national, then global press.
The crop circle phenomenon was a rural version of Banksy’s anonymous art that could only have emerged when and where it did. It acted as a rebuttal to the materialistic 80's, drawing people's eyes away from their bank balances and down to the earth or, in search of extraterrestrial artists, up to the skies, in the same way Banksy counters the inchoate British control- and surveillance-state. This is very much a vibes novel, breathing the atmosphere of a specific time and place, but in doing so it says a lot about the nature of friendship and art. The circles are ephemeral, gone in days, but they echo the megalithic stone circles that dot the same landscape, the ultimate expression of ars longa. The art is transient but the canvas is eternal. Calvert and Redbone have little in common except a distrust of authority and their shared mission, and you worry for their future and that of their friendship when the harvest brings that mission to an end.
It's a novel about the land, our relationship to it and our use and misuse of it. Everyone wants to profit from the land — the farmers from their crop, the landowners from rent, the hucksters selling admission to see the miraculous circles, the fly-tippers, fellow noctambulists, by illegaly desecrating it. Only the artists, careful not to damage the crop in the course of their artistry, seem to eschew the notion that land is a resource to be exploited.
It's also — and this is what I liked best about it — a novel about the magic of nocturnal activity. The night after all is the time of dreams and creation. God had his creational brainwave in darkness, the Big Bang proceeded from darkness, and nighttime is the commonest time for people to create new people (or just recreate, like the trio of doggers our heroes stumble across while returning from a night's work). The moonlit lucubrations of the artist in his garret, or these days in the wan light of a screen when everyone else is abed, the toils of the elves for the shoemaker — all this seems true and fitting. The stillness of the night seems pregnant, fecund, rich with possibility. When you ride a bicycle in the dark, everything feels faster, freer, easier, as if some impediment inherent to daylight has been removed. All the real action of the book takes place at night. I think it's also a book about the normality of night, away from the insanity of day. The comforts of the occult, of being hidden among other hidden things. And I think some of the book's nostalgic allure comes from how it evokes the normality of the period relative to our era of total and hyperconnected visibility.
The Perfect Golden Circle covers a surprising lot of ground in its ~200 pages, most of which are just two blokes tromping through fields, and it has a sense of humour, too.
The crop circle phenomenon was a rural version of Banksy’s anonymous art that could only have emerged when and where it did. It acted as a rebuttal to the materialistic 80's, drawing people's eyes away from their bank balances and down to the earth or, in search of extraterrestrial artists, up to the skies, in the same way Banksy counters the inchoate British control- and surveillance-state. This is very much a vibes novel, breathing the atmosphere of a specific time and place, but in doing so it says a lot about the nature of friendship and art. The circles are ephemeral, gone in days, but they echo the megalithic stone circles that dot the same landscape, the ultimate expression of ars longa. The art is transient but the canvas is eternal. Calvert and Redbone have little in common except a distrust of authority and their shared mission, and you worry for their future and that of their friendship when the harvest brings that mission to an end.
It's a novel about the land, our relationship to it and our use and misuse of it. Everyone wants to profit from the land — the farmers from their crop, the landowners from rent, the hucksters selling admission to see the miraculous circles, the fly-tippers, fellow noctambulists, by illegaly desecrating it. Only the artists, careful not to damage the crop in the course of their artistry, seem to eschew the notion that land is a resource to be exploited.
It's also — and this is what I liked best about it — a novel about the magic of nocturnal activity. The night after all is the time of dreams and creation. God had his creational brainwave in darkness, the Big Bang proceeded from darkness, and nighttime is the commonest time for people to create new people (or just recreate, like the trio of doggers our heroes stumble across while returning from a night's work). The moonlit lucubrations of the artist in his garret, or these days in the wan light of a screen when everyone else is abed, the toils of the elves for the shoemaker — all this seems true and fitting. The stillness of the night seems pregnant, fecund, rich with possibility. When you ride a bicycle in the dark, everything feels faster, freer, easier, as if some impediment inherent to daylight has been removed. All the real action of the book takes place at night. I think it's also a book about the normality of night, away from the insanity of day. The comforts of the occult, of being hidden among other hidden things. And I think some of the book's nostalgic allure comes from how it evokes the normality of the period relative to our era of total and hyperconnected visibility.
The Perfect Golden Circle covers a surprising lot of ground in its ~200 pages, most of which are just two blokes tromping through fields, and it has a sense of humour, too.
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