The Maintenance of Headway

Magnus Mills gathered a passionate fan base following his debut novel, The Restraint of Beasts, which won the McKitterick Prize and was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread A bus driver by trade, Mills' novel taps into his intimate knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of bus travel - with hilarious results The Magnus Mills backlist has been given a charming and eccentric new branded look to appeal to a fresh generation of fans

A novel that lets you enter the bizarre world of the bus driver, a strange but all too familiar universe in which 'the timetable' and 'the maintenance of headway' are sacred, but where the routes can change with the click of an inspector's fingers.'It's a matter of procedure,' I explained. 'Strictly for the record. You don't get sacked from this job unless you did what Thompson did'. 'What did he do then'? 'We never mention it'. Enter the bizarre world of the bus driver, a strange but all too familiar universe in which 'the timetable' and 'the maintenance of headway' are sacred, but where the routes can change with the click of an inspector's fingers. This brilliant short novel is a gently absurd examination of the British bus system and its peculiarities, where the demands of the hapless passengers are virtually ignored and where it is fine to be a little bit late but utterly unforgivable to be a moment early.