The Peacock

Shortlisted for the Independent Booksellers Award 2016
Spiegel-Bestseller – highest position #7
English and French sample translations available

A charming, rundown country estate where a peacock is playing mad, a group of bankers on a team building exercise, an ambitious young psychologist, an energetic housekeeper with a broken arm, a brilliant cook, Lord and Lady McIntosh who have to make it all work, add to that lots of animals – and soon nobody has any idea what’s going on.

In her first novel, Isabel Bogdan describes with subtle English understatement a weekend where nothing goes to plan. Senior investment banker, Liz, and her department want to enhance their team work in this rural getaway but are thrown off course by the Spartan surroundings and a peacock which has just gone mad. Lord McIntosh’s pragmatic approach to problem-solving sets off a hilarious chain of events which none of the participants understands but which pushes everyone to their limits.

»Isabel Bogdan has created an array of unforgettable characters who will remind readers of John Cleese in the marvellous Fawlty Towers series. Her concise writing style highlights an irony that compares favourably with that of Alan Bennett.« Hamburg Förderpreis, jury