Library of Wales: Congratulate the Devil

Foreword By Adrian Dannat
Starling knows a chemist called Roper, who knows a painter called Jourbert, who knows a man in Mexico who works for the government. Mescal has always had its routes into the world. There has been a new shipment, but not quite what anyone expected. This is a new drug. It opens the doors of perception for a man like Roper hiding away in his north London laboratory. He can make people work for him, turn his friends into fools or murderers, if only he could control his own mind.... Anita is such a beautiful woman but she could never love a man like Roper...
Power, pleasure, always corrupt... -- Publisher: Parthian Books
Reissued as part of Parthian’s Library of Wales series, Congratulate the Devil is the last and least known of Howell Davies’s trio of science fiction/fantasy books, all of which were published between 1938 and 1939 under the pseudonym ‘Andrew Marvell’. This edition is furnished with a charming foreword by the author’s grandson, Adrian Dannatt, who paints a warm and vivid picture of the fascinating maverick, many of whose ideas were very much ahead of the time. Upper-class chemist Bill Roper chances upon a strange new drug with startling effects: it enables the taker to read and control the mind and actions of any sentient being, human or otherwise, within a range of two hundred and fifteen yards. Roper shares his discovery with his old school-friend, Starling, and employs Bert Phillips, a kind and amiable Welshman, as his assistant to experiment with the drug. Initially, all is fun and harmless japes and there are some highly entertaining scenes. But it soon becomes apparent that the drug also has the effect of magnifying the taker’s natural – or unnatural – inclinations. Roper is a misfit, a physically ugly young man who has spent his life concealing both his yearning for love and affection and his embittered attitude behind a cool facade. Things begin to go badly, bitterly awry . . . Davies’s writing is wonderful, easily capturing the subtleties of a broad range of characters from varying backgrounds and weaving a narrative that, however unbelievable, defies you to put the book down, unless it is simply to catch your breath after another shivering event or twist in the plot. He is an acute and compassionate observer, clearly able to forgive individual foibles, but less willing to overlook the collective follies of a society whose values are sadly misguided. As much of its time as ahead of it, Congratulate the Devil remains as compelling and relevant today as it was when it was first published. -- Suzy Ceulan Hughes @ www.gwales.com