"And while we laugh at the absurdity of the story, Williams does just enough to create the nagging worry that it isn't so unreal after all; that Royston is only as much of a caricature as the sensitive intellectual in the Hampstead novel or Jonathan Franzen's troubled Americans. The hideous town of Mangel, meanwhile, with its casual violence, unmanageable drinking and psychotic conservatism, offers up a vision of Britain that seems all too familiar. Royston may have trouble with words of more than two syllables and antediluvian attitudes to everything, but he produces one of the most challenging social commentaries you are likely to read this year. AmazonEncore has rescued an excellent book."
- Sam Jordison, The Guardian
"One Dead Hen is : Painfully funny and true. Brilliantly absurdest and satirical. Essential reading for anyone who wants to look modern day Britain in it's bleary eyes"
- Paul D. Brazill, You Would Say That, Wouldn't You?
"Williams plays with satire, stereotypes, and at times even slapstick, but then unsettles the reader by bringing in elements of gritty realism or grisly horror. Simply put, the author has the ability to tickle your funny bone one moment, before quickly cutting into your marrow the next.
I found One Dead Hen to be, after all the humour and antics, the bleakest and most nihilistic of the books so far.
Mangel no longer seems like the laughable town from hell, but now hell itself, and anyone who stays too long is either damned, cursed or slightly demonic to begin with. It's a place where innocence and hope is slowly strangled from all those who stay (or return)."
- The Paper Tiger's Roar Feed
