The ideas behind Thomson's novel buzz with originality, sparking contemporary connections and recalling Brave New World and even Gulliver's Travels ... Divided Kingdom thrums with ideas and is a moving and gripping book

  --Observer

Full of contemporary relevance, of ambitious scope, vivid imagination and wonderful rich-textured prose ... Thomson creates a portrait of Britain that is seductively detailed, disorientating, sometimes funny and often horrifying ... he is a master at creating an atmosphere of alienation and suspicion

  --Sunday Telegraph

It is winter, somewhere in the United Kingdom, and an eight-year-old boy is removed from his home and family in the middle of the night.He soon learns that he is the victim of an extraordinary experiment. In an attempt to reform society, the government has divided the population into four groups, each representing a different personality type. The land, too, has been divided into quarters. Borders have been established, reinforced by concrete walls, armed guards and rolls of razor wire. Plunged headlong into this brave new world, the boy tries to make the best of things, unaware that ahead of him lies a truly explosive moment, a revelation that will challenge everything he believes in and will put his very life in jeopardy ...