The Underground Man

Mick Jackson’s moving portrayal of a Victorian misfit, who slowly comes to understand the history that lies behind his obsessive behaviour.

The fifth Duke of Portland spends his time and wealth creating a network of tunnels beneath his Nottinghamshire estate. As he withdraws further from the society he falls prey to his lonely self-absorption and to the tender mercies of his household staff. His rare appearances are misinterpreted and the local gossip has inflated his eccentricities into sinister deformities. The Duke’s slow piecing together of the truth about his past builds to an intensely moving and powerful conclusion.

"An ingenious, sympathetic (though somewhat claustrophobic) fictional exploration of the odd life and peculiar obsessions of William John Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott, the fifth Duke of Portland (180079), and one of the great Victorian eccentrics. Jackson's debut novel takes some of what is known of the Duke's life, in addition to folktales about him that still circulate in his native Nottinghamshire, and adds a considerable amount of invention to create the portrait of a bright, hopelessly baffled figure, struggling to carry out the hereditary obligations of his office while sinking deeper and deeper into a hypochondriacal frenzy... there's enough vigour and imagination here to suggest the emergence of a lively new talent."  -  Kirkus Reviews

Mick Jackson is the prize-winning author of the novel The Underground Man, which was shortlisted for the 1997 Booker Prize. Other notable works include Five Boys and The Widow’s Tale. He has also published, with the illustrator David Roberts, two acclaimed curiosities, Ten Sorry Tales and Bears of England.