The Barber's Apprentice

By Martyn Fairlamb

The Barber's Apprentice is a comic fantasy novel of approximately 96,000 words.Who shaves the barber? His apprentice of course. Cuts his hair too. That's why all the retired barbers running around the palace have such long hair and beards.The book brings a cast of characters together, desperately trying (and failing) to disrupt the coronation of Prince Jermyn, the late king's nephew.Nevin has been apprenticed to travelling barber Master Drancy since he left school, and when he reaches the city of Arpik he should receive his very own pole. But when the wagon rolls in Nevin and Drancy find the city in turmoil. The king is dead, the princess too, and the king's nephew has been got at by unseen forces. Prince Jermyn has been issuing some mighty strange proclamations: barbering has been outlawed for a start. Even the comforting aroma of tallow has been replaced by the scented oil of Rhoolian lamps. The chandlers unaccountably burned down just as the Rhoolians moved in to the city. If that wasn't enough, everybody's favourite tubular meat product has been banned by Jermyn too.Can Nevin and runaway cobbler's boy Drew save the day? They won't have to do it alone. There's a chapter house of retired barbers with nothing better to do than get themselves arrested. And Nevin has made some useful friends on the road to the city: the ore divers of The Accused, Karzey (an arboreal dwarf with a taste for frogs), and Simmonit Brans, Manifester to royalty. They all pitch in to help execute a complex plan. Aided, abetted, occasionally stymied by various factions of sausage activists who are running the palace guard ragged, and the crones sabotaging the royal physicians' clinic.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1520437307
• ISBN13: 9781520437309
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 325 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"