Yet there’s another kind of surgery in the novella as well: the diagnosis and (premature) autopsy of Nick’s and Alyson’s marriage: its current failings arising from the issues of the past, and the petty spite of a union dragged through the wringer by infidelity, trauma and growing indifference. Ferner has done a phenomenal amount of research into brain surgery and writes with an authority which completely convinced me, as a layman. The story is about surgery, of course, and there are several intriguing accounts of operations on the brain, which fascinated me because it’s something I know nothing about and neuroscience still has an almost mystical quality for me. It soon becomes clear that the ‘bone box’ of the title isn’t just the skull, within which the brain-self resides, but also the prisons we build for ourselves, trapping ourselves within excess flesh or addictions.

Meanwhile his wife, Alyson, has her own demons to fight.

It’s the story of consultant neurosurgeon Nicholas Anderton, whose burgeoning obesity has already threatened his marriage and now raises very serious questions about his professional capabilities. I decided to start with Inside the Bone Box, because it focused on a doctor and that appealed in the wake of Adam Kay’s diaries. At one year old, they’re just about to release a series of five novellas in their Fairlight Moderns series and I was delighted to have a sneak peek. Read an interview with Anthony Ferner about writing fiction on Rob Mclennan’s blog.In this day and age, with independent bookshops and small publishers closing in swathes, it’s a joy to hear of a newly-founded enterprise: Fairlight Books in Oxford. He has been a member of the Tindal Street Fiction Group, based in Birmingham, since 2010. It was published by Holland Park Press in May 2019. His latest novel Life in Translation follows the bumpy life of a jobbing translator dreaming of literary success. His second novella, Inside the Bone Box, was published by Fairlight Books in 2018. Winegarden, his debut novel, was published in October 2015 by Holland Park Press.Īnother of Anthony Ferner’s short stories, ‘The tanks’, was shortlisted for the Irish Times summer short story competition in 2014. This story became the basis of Winegarden, in which the hero explores unconventional ways of coping with the burdens of love, grief and being an agnostic Jew. His short story ‘The Cat It Is That Dies’ appeared in the anthology The Sea In Birmingham, edited by Gaynor Arnold and Julia Bell and published by Tindal Street Fiction Group in 2013. He has published many works of non-fiction, mainly about the behaviour of multinational companies. Anthony Ferner was professor of international human resource management at De Montfort University and was head of research in the Faculty of Business and Law for 12 years.

Inside the Bone Box by Anthony Ferner