Afterbirth

t's the year 2050 and everyone can choose the perfect baby. Blue eyes, blond hair, and calcium-rich blood. Everyone, that is, who can pay. (Many people can't pay). The West Country's most beautiful woman, Silvie Mink, is certain her newborn will be as drop dead gorgeous as her. But when her baby drops dead, knifed by her own placenta, she knows her DNA modification program has gone too far.

Possessed of a fearsome intelligence and hatred of good bone structure, the mutated placenta escapes the hospital, rounds up of a group of ugly, bummed-off 'assymetricals' and, together, they attack the Beautiful People of Bristol.

A staggering indictment of what Garth terms 'lookism'.

TAGLINE: After birth, comes Afterbirth

'Bristol's fashion scene (run by the wonderfully camp Big Reg) is tenderly and humouressly sketched by Marenghi's wry eye' SFX

'I can't believe this book' The Times

'Quite simply, his nastiest work to date' Locus