Barefoot in the Head
On sale
19th February 2026
Price: £24.99
‘An extraordinary book’ The Listener
‘An extremely urgent criticism of the present’ Daily Telegraph
The earth is recovering from the Acid Head War, in which hallucinogenic chemicals were the primary weapon. Many humans are now suffering from delusions and are unable to tell the real from the imaginary.
When a man named Colin Charteris tries to make sense of the drugged-out world, he is taken as the new messiah. As he descends into paranoid visions, he begins to believe this himself.
‘An extremely urgent criticism of the present’ Daily Telegraph
The earth is recovering from the Acid Head War, in which hallucinogenic chemicals were the primary weapon. Many humans are now suffering from delusions and are unable to tell the real from the imaginary.
When a man named Colin Charteris tries to make sense of the drugged-out world, he is taken as the new messiah. As he descends into paranoid visions, he begins to believe this himself.
Reviews
The most ambitious psychedelic sci-fi novel of the era
Extraordinarily inventive
Mirrors fantastically the violence and destruction of our times ... an extraordinary book ... a dark, sombre, sustained vision ... dense and powerful
An extraordinary tour-de-force
The kind of breakthrough which crushes criticism with admiration
An extremely urgent criticism of life in the present