In The Beginning

by Simon Edge

From the author of The End of the World is Flat

The Terg wars are over. Now meet the Yerfs

'Brilliant! Perfectly captures both the absurdity and horror of this madness'. Gareth Roberts.

When Tara Farrier returns to the UK after a long spell as an aid worker in war-torn Yemen, she's hoping for a well-deserved rest.

But a cultural battleground has emerged while she's been away, and she's unprepared for the sensitivities of her new colleagues at an international thinktank. A throwaway reference to volcanic activity millions of years ago gets her into hot water and she discovers she belongs to the group reviled by fashionable activists as 'Young Earth Rejecting Fascists', or 'Yerfs'. Faster than she can say 'Tyrannosaurus Rex', she is at the centre of a gruelling legal drama.

In the keenly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed The End of the World is Flat, Simon Edge stabs once again at modern crank beliefs and herd behaviour with stiletto-sharp satire.

Genres: Politics, Fiction

355 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Simon Edge read philosophy at Cambridge and had a long career as a newspaper journalist and critic. He is the author of five novels, mostly satirical comedies with a historical theme: The Hopkins Conundrum, a ‘tragic comedy’ based on the life of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins; The Hurtle of Hell, an atheist comedy featuring God as one of the main characters; A Right Royal Face-Off, about the rivalry between the painters Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds, mixed with a satirical modern story; Anyone for Edmund?, a political satire about the discovery of England’s long-lost patron saint; and The End of the World is Flat, described by novelist Jane Harris as ‘Animal Farm for the era of gender lunacy, with jokes’. He lives in Suffolk.

Reviews

[Jenifer Lavery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worthy of respect in a democratic society. Grab a gin a gimmicks tracker and settle down to read this eerily familiar tale but remember women won't wheesht

[Tracy Duckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely effing glorious!!! Fabulous writing from start to finish - I read it in a single day and spent much of that time literally laughing out loud with joy. Wonderful ❤️

[Jo Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Wonderful and funny with great parallels to recent events. Read it ina day as couldn’t put it down.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm, i can't go higher than 3, i think. I like Simon Edge and I enjoyed TEOTWIF, and thought maybe this would be a rebooted, improved version of the same idea. But instead it's a sort of awkward near-sequel (the afterword explains the reasoning for that) and it's got an identity crisis over whether to be a biting satire or a courtroom drama and it doesn't quite work as either. The court scenes don't work because the subject matter is too absurd, and the satire doesn't work because it's too diffuse, padded out to John Grisham length with chitchat, office talk and interesting facts about Yemen. The filler spoils the effect. The actual plot - the crazy social trend that messes up everyone's life - doesn't even make an appearance until page 97.

It also doesn't really feel satisfactory that both books finish with a nice simple solution, and the madness being overturned. It would be lovely if we found out Gender Trouble was a creative writing project that had been misunderstood and sparked a global movement to impose shitty ideas on the whole world, but it didn't really feel like a believable way for even a comic novel to end.

I seem to be in a minority. I'm sure a lot of.peoole will enjoy the book if they already know the story it's satirising (basically, Maya Forstater's court case) but what the world needs is something that can be read by someone who doesn't already know the lore, and that elegantly explains the madness in a funny and compassionate way and it's frustrating that his isn't it.

[Cath Senker]

In the Beginning by Simon Edge couldn't be more timely. Conspiracy theories, mostly fuelled on social media, have never been more popular. Just one example: a Savanta survey in April found that one-third of the UK population believe that the cost of living crisis is a government plot to control us.

In Edge's latest satirical romp, Young Earth adherents spread the message that a cultural belief of unknown provenance is just as valid as scientifically proven fact. If an Indigenous legend claims the Earth is just 10,000 years old, it's racist to insist otherwise.

Caught up in this quagmire of science versus a supposed cultural belief is Tara, a Palestinian-British woman, recently returned to the UK from Yemen. Tara is campaigning for an end to the devastating civil war in that country and happens to include some geological facts in the Yemen report she's writing for her new employer.

For me, the greatest strength of the novel lies in Tara's character. Edge's experience of living and working in the Middle East (which I share) brings authenticity to his writing. Tara's relationship with her adult children is described with great sensitivity, insight and humour. And through the eyes of Tara, we see how a wild conspiracy theory, created and propagated on social media, can end up influencing public policy and impacting on people's lives in the real world.

A serious topic, delivered with a light, humorous touch. Highly recommended.

[Fiona Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second of Simon Edge's books that I have read. They are standalone, although I found reading The End of the World is Flat was a useful introduction to the subject matter covered in both - how (easily) people can become believers in things that are contrary to fact or science in order to protect an imaginary minority from oppression. The parallels between these books and gender activism is absolutely solid, yet it manages to look at the processes from a humorous and clever perspective. In this book, you can spend your time happily ticking off the various people who might just be the inspiration for some of the characters - well, it is a work of fiction so any resemblance etc., etc., etc.. It is an excellent read as well as being insightful, acting as a warning, and giving any of us the strength to call out nonsense when we hear it...and before it does significant damage...sadly, recent years suggests so much damage has been done already...

[Andrew Stickland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes cleverly subtle, sometimes hilariously obvious, and always sharper than a T-Rex's incisor.

[Richard Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written, thought provoking, page turner. Made me laugh, and gave me goosebumps. I highly recommend.

[Luce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bonne satire où l'on reconnaît facilement des événements qui se sont réellement passés. Le livre est agréable à lire et se lit facilement.

[Madeleine D'Arcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, witty, delightfully satirical and really well-written. I must check out more of this author's work.