Death of a Unicorn

When Mabs first sees B, her reaction is, “It was a frog prince.” How apt is this impression? In what ways is he “princely” and in what ways “froggy”? How does he stand up to our notions of a romantic leading man? What other fairy tale images or elements are at work in the novel?

What does Mabs’ experience at Night and Day reveal about the magazine business and society in early 20th-century London? What are the concerns of the journalists there? How does Dickinson’s depiction of this milieu jive with our ideas about journalism today?

In a footnote, the older Mabs reflects upon the difficulties of writers “to bring the odour of period to life,” lamenting that most people’s “real sense of their time is as unrecapturable as the momentary pose of a child” (17). How do the language, behaviors, conventions, and assumptions of the characters, as well as static details such as details of clothing and decor, evoke the two periods in which this story is set? What was happening culturally and politically in England in the early 1950s and the early 1980s that might color the circumstances of Mabs’ story?

What attitudes toward race, gender, and class are at work in this novel?

Mabs makes frequent references to the “piggy” features she shares with Jane. How are ideas of female beauty and attractiveness presented, subverted, or confirmed in this novel? How does Mabs regard her own value as a woman? What kind of woman is she and how would she fare in our own “post-feminist” time?

There is much talk of the mixed blessings of inheritances, particularly in regard to the two estates B and Mabs stand to inherit. Together with the houses, what does an inheritance consist of as Mabs considers it? How do the possibilities or inevitabilities of these inheritances affect the action of the story?

About the Author

Peter Dickinson was born in Zambia and educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. After graduation, he joined the staff of the British humor magazine Punch where he worked for seventeen years, leaving as assistant editor. At forty he began a, career as a mystery writer and has written more than fifty books. His first two novels were awarded the British Crime Writers Association’s Golden Dagger Award. His mysteries include Hindsight, The Last Houseparty, A Summer in the Twenties, The Lively Dead, King and Joker, and The Poison Oracle, and his books for children and young adults include Emma Tupper’s Diary, Kin, Eva, The Dancing Bear, and The Seventh Raven. He lives in England and is married to the novelist Robin McKinley. Find out more at peterdickinson.com.

Peter Dickinson titles available from Small Beer Press

THE POISON ORACLE

“Intelligent, elegantly written . . . a thoroughly enjoyable read.”

—Sunday Times.

“I have no idea if any of this talk and action is authentic, and I don’t care. Either way it’s marvellous.”—Rex Stout

EARTH AND AIR: TALES OF ELEMENTAL CREATURES

“Mining folklore for ideas is routine in modern fantasy, but not many can add the surprising twists and novel logic that Peter Dickinson does. These are beautiful stories, deft, satisfying, unexpected. They deserve to become classics of the genre.”—Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal, Best Fiction of 2012

EMMA TUPPER’S DIARY

“Fish out of water Emma must spend the summer in Scotland with cousins she’s never met. It’s the sort of family where everyone is whip-smart, conversations are fast and fascinating, and statements of fact are rarely truthful. All of which makes for one extremely suspenseful and surprisingly thought-provoking adventure.”—Gwenyth Swain (author of Chig and the Second Spread)

Recent and forthcoming short story collections and novels from Small Beer Press for independently minded readers:

Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters: Stories

Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others

“Shining, haunting, mind-blowing tales”—Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)

Alan DeNiro, Tyrannia and Other Renditions

Karen Joy Fowler, What I Didn’t See and Other Stories

“An exceptionally versatile author.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Trafalgar (trans. Amalia Gladhart)

“I found it delightful. Thought-provoking. Impressive. Brilliant.”—Liz Bourke, Tor.com

Elizabeth Hand, Errantry: Stories

“Elegant nightmares, sensuously told.”—Publishers Weekly

Generation Loss: a Cass Neary novel

“Postpunk attitude and dark mystery.” —George Pelecanos

Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories