... takes neolithic genocide, incest, helotry and weaponry in its fine imaginative stride ... the stark action and the snows and wolf-woods of a hostile landscape are powerful feats of description.

Observer

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Herley is one of the best yarn-spinners in England today.

The Australian

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What is astonishing is that the animistic, ancient world, which to us exists merely in dusty flint arrow-tips or dried pieces of leather attached to bone fish hooks behind glass in museums, should be brought to such lusty and sometimes hideously painful life. It is sobering to realise that in 5,000 years men appear to have learned nothing but the ability to kill and maim with more sophistication.

A well researched and remarkable novel.

Daily Telegraph

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Herley writes with such panache that one soon feels at home in a world where blinding, boiling alive, flaying and disembowelling are the order of the day ...