The Perfect Golden Circle

A book is shot through with a romantic, even mystical radicalism of the kind that William Blake would have approved of.
DAILY TELEGRAPH

The same visceral, iconoclastic thrill I got from Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem … A study in male friendship and British identity, and a warm, rollicking, heart-expanding read. You’ll never forget the time you spend in the company of Calvert and Redbone
OBSERVER, Thirty Best Holiday Reads

Brilliantly constructed and steeped in rural atmosphere
FINANCIAL TIMES, Best summer books of 2022

A spirited and anarchic novel … A roiling, rollicking crop-circle folk tale
GUARDIAN

A joy
DAILY MAIL

The most beautiful book about friendship, about nature … I think it will appeal to everybody
BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB

The understated, plangent loveliness of Myers’s storytelling is reminiscent of Mackenzie Crook’s brilliant TV series Detectorists. Here is a strong, spiritual writer who sees and loves every dewdrop, old oak, soft little animal and buried sword, and offers them up to us like the precious treasures they are. The Perfect Golden Circle deserves top ranking in any list of the best books about rural England
THE TIMES

In this folksy, magnetic tale, two outsiders seek healing and enlightenment by creating crop formations in a Wiltshire field … combining lyricism with comedy and themes that range from warfare and environmental calamity to hope and healing … A memorable hymn to beauty
OBSERVER

Clever, angry, poignant and beautifully constructed … A work of love, and a work about works of love, and a work that evokes a sense of love in the reader
SCOTSMAN

The beauty of Myers’ language alone is reward enough to read this superb novel, but The Perfect Golden Circle offers so much more: an all-too-rare literary depiction of rural England, the depths of the two central characters, the class and ecological concerns; but most of all the human need for what the Welsh poet Bobi Jones called “the boundless mystery that comforts being.” A truly remarkable novel
RON RASH

Tender and magical
METRO

I’ve been loving reading aloud The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers to my mother. It’s a delightfully descriptive book, telling the story of two men in the south of England who create crop circles in the dead of night. Myers interweaves modernity and myth, UFOs and ancient rites. At the heart of the book is the main character’s mantra. “Fuel the myth, strive for beauty”
Guardian, What we’re reading

Full of mythology, wonder and oddity, Myers’ typical lyricism moves seamlessly from the mundane to the magical… Those who feel the English countryside deep within their bones will be enchanted by this folk gem from one of the nation’s most illuminating writers
THE TABLET, Summer reading

The Perfect Golden Circle is a triumph of a book, showcasing a writer at his very best. There is a huge heart beating in this magical story. A heartfelt story that is transformative and transportive … Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power
STORGY

Consummate plotting and tenderness
TLS

Wonderfully subtle and understated… Benjamin Myers manages to write novels of increasing importance, asking what happened in previous decades to get us to this point in English history, where the seriousness of his purpose is matched by how entertaining and engrossing they are
BOOKMUNCH

An odd and winsome pleasure: a novel of friendship, collaboration, and environmental guerrilla art
KIRKUS

Not only is it a total delight to tiptoe behind them as they languidly fuel the myth and strive for beauty, but as an experiment in proving one’s existence by leaving a close-to-invisible footprint that still resonates across the countryside, history and beyond, it’s a work of genius in several dimensions
STRONG WORDS