Tomb Boy Quote: 'What be this love, denied so long, Zaza?' Tomb Boy serves as a grand epilogue to Marenghi's early period, consolidating the wildness of his muscular prose in a refreshingly succinct and mature reflection upon social, religious and political constraints on individual freedom. As he himself puts it, 'I finally plucked up the courage to piss in my parents' front path'. The titular Tomb Boy is a deaf-mute imprisoned from birth within a dank dungeon cellar by a corrupt midwife, Liza,

After this chilling one hundred page prologue we find our hero, at the age of eighteen, locked in darkness, starved of human contact, unable to speak, naked as a judge and communicating psychically with a wolf at nearby London Zoo. Finally discovered by Liza's new housekeeper, Sheila (a promiscuous supply teacher), Tomb Boy escapes from his imprisonment and embarks upon a furious and uncontained killing spree through the city of London, before being shot down from the roof of the OXO Tower by an army SWAT team. Regrettably, the book was banned in most secondary schools. Marenghi: 'The truth, it seems, continues to hurt. […] I'm very proud of 'Boy. It totally prefigured Taxi Driver. In fact, I've a good mind to boot Marty's behind for that one.'

It is fitting that the only human that seems to understand Tomb Boy is one similarly outcast by society, namely, Delroy, the fifteen-year-old blind black boy who forms much of the second half of the novel's emotional core. Marenghi: 'It was a real challenge for me to write from the perspective of a character from an ethnic minority. And to explore two cultures coming into contact with each other, like in Different Strokes. I sat around in cafes in Brixton and just tried to pick up on their language, their vibe. The story is about individuality: about the way one sees oneself outside of the labels 'conventional' society forces on us." Like Delroy says to his guidance counsellor in the book, 'Ain't no way no whitey's gonna git me to disrespec' ma bluds. Some hood would woop me good.'

'A shockingly relevant societal side-swipe' Peeping John Fanzine

'Robust' The Times