Bigot Hall A Gothic Childhood

Bigot Hall is the nightmare home of a family most people would rather forget - but which Steve Aylett chooses to celebrate. Uncle Burst's belief that his face is made of pasta is one of the milder notions with which he regales the family as it gathers for breakfast. Uncle Snapper is confined to a treehouse because of the uncontrollable urges he feels once his gun is loaded. Uncle Blute has drowned in the lake at the wheel of his Morris Traveller where he remails perfectly preserved, listening to classical music on the car radio. The grandmother, unaccountably known as Nanny Jack, refuses all efforts to bury her and strikes terror into her relatives' hearts as she abandons yet another final resting place to stalk through the hall at night. Through this happy breed strolls a nameless anti-hero known only as 'laughing boy' who, when not kidnapped by clowns or puzzling out the fossilised family tree, is passionately in love with his beautiful, spaced-out sister, Adrienne.