Cuddy
- Author Benjamin Myers
- Narrator Colin Mace, Hannah Barrie, Jimmy Chisholm, Rowena Gray, Samuel Edward Cook
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 16 March 2023
- Run Time 11 hours and 25 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary, Historical fiction, Magical realism.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents Cuddy by Benjamin Myers, read by Colin Mace, Hannah Barrie, Jimmy Chisholm, Rowena Gray and Samuel Edward Cook.
**Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023**
**Chosen as a book to watch out for in 2023 by The Times, Observer, Guardian, Irish Times and Scotsman**
'It’s a testament to the cast of five that they manage to unite these apparently disparate elements. The effect as each story gives way to the next is one of history ebbing and flowing, of individuals united by place and past.' FINANCIAL TIMES
‘An epic the north has long deserved’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A sensational piece of storytelling … A singular and significant achievement’ GUARDIAN
‘Marvellous, artful, enchanted’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers' I NEWS
The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing
Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England.
Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras – from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity.
Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages.
And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.
**Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023**
**Chosen as a book to watch out for in 2023 by The Times, Observer, Guardian, Irish Times and Scotsman**
'It’s a testament to the cast of five that they manage to unite these apparently disparate elements. The effect as each story gives way to the next is one of history ebbing and flowing, of individuals united by place and past.' FINANCIAL TIMES
‘An epic the north has long deserved’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A sensational piece of storytelling … A singular and significant achievement’ GUARDIAN
‘Marvellous, artful, enchanted’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers' I NEWS
The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing
Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England.
Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras – from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity.
Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages.
And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.
Critics Review
It’s a testament to the cast of five that they manage to unite these apparently disparate elements. The effect as each story gives way to the next is one of history ebbing and flowing, of individuals united by place and past.
It’s been a while since I’ve reacted as emotionally to a novel ... An epic the north has long deserved: ambitious, dreamy, earthy, dark, welcoming and not ... There are readers like me who will not just enjoy this book but feel deeply grateful for its existence
A polyphonic hymn to a very specific landscape and its people. At the same time, it deepens his standing as an arresting chronicler of a broader, more mysterious seam of ancient folklore that unites the history of these isles as it’s rarely taught
Myers is maturing into a serious writer rather than just a sombre one. Cuddy is an ambitious and accomplished novel that shows it’s not — necessarily — grim up north
There’s much to enjoy in the novel’s linguistic beauty ... Cuddy explores the endurance of goodness and grace
A sensational piece of storytelling … The symbiosis of poetry and story, of knowledge and deep love, marks out Cuddy as a singular and significant achievement
Mesmerising, lyrical ... Stands in a genre of its own ... Serves as a reminder that we are but custodians of a world we inherited. Cuddy cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers
Myers traces … the manifold threads of history to remarkable effect
The cathedral is a wonder … in its elegance and grotesquery, its shimmering and its solidity, Myers captures it accurately. Indeed, that could be a description of his book
As a work of literature and as a tribute to a man and his region, it will endure
Marvellous, artful, enchanted ... With power and pathos, this novel follows the cult of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne from the 7th century to the present day
Brave, bold and brilliantly alive, Cuddy calls forth the voices and the places of the north in a kaleidoscopic portrait through time. Myers at his best: dark, sharp, earthy and superbly funny. Cuddy isn’t a novel, it’s an invocation
Spare, poetic, haunting, tenderly observed ... Myers is a natural storyteller ... [with] a poetic sensibility, and as a writer he enjoys the snap and crunch of words, and the way they can summon an atmosphere
A wonder ... An accomplished and very moving novel
Myers chisels a cohesive and engaging portrait of a place laden with history
An absorbingly beautiful book ... There aren't many writers as attuned to the present state of this country and the history and landscape that made it as Myers, who succeeds repeatedly in harnessing time with compassion, kindness and a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era
Cuddy is a work of art. Ben Myers has pulled off a kind of magic trick ... Daring, expansive and deeply satisfying, Cuddy is a truly original piece of writing which weaves a special kind of magic. I was left completely spellbound. I loved every minute of this dazzling and deeply original novel
Once again Ben Myers has built another time machine in words and I thoroughly enjoyed being humped around early medieval northern England alongside St Cuthbert's holy corpse via centuries of fisticuffs and up Durham Cathedrals tower to a sensitive take on issues of our own time. Most of all I appreciated how Myers explores faith and belief without the usual eyeroll and cynicism of our excessively secular age – I feel St Cuthbert's monks and masons looking down through history with a certain sense of pride
Cuddy is another milestone marking Myers’ versatility as a writer
Rich, rewarding, dark and comic, Cuddy is, like that cathedral, a magnificent construction
To be able to move from the Dark Ages, to the Middle Ages, to the Victorian Era to Modern Times and so ably capture the zeitgeist of each is a rare feat of imagination
Praise for Benjamin Myers: A writer of extraordinary and incandescent talent
A genre-melding experimental novel
Here is a strong, spiritual writer who sees and loves every dewdrop, old oak, soft little animal and buried sword, and offers them up to us like the precious treasures they are
No one writes about the atmosphere, beauty and brutality of the English countryside better than Benjamin Myers. And it's hard to think of many people who can write with such attentiveness, tenderness and force about the importance of human connection and the redemptive power of art
One of the most interesting, restless writers of his generation
No one writes about the atmosphere, beauty and brutality of the English countryside better than Ben Myers. And it's hard to think of many people who can write with with such attentiveness, tenderness and force about the importance of human connection and the redemptive power of art
Shot through with a romantic, even mystical radicalism of the kind that William Blake would have approved of
What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness ... Gorgeous
Benjamin Myers is fast making the contested boundary between history and folklore his own
A powerful new voice
Book by book, over the past decade, Ben Myers has proved himself to be one of the most singular, moving and crucial voices of our times
A draft of cool, clear water ... He’s such a good and brave writer
Powerful and moving
User Reviews
29/07/2025
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