It's all go in the little oasis of nature that lies at the heart of Palmers Green, in this stirring tale of surrealism and subterfuge among the shrubbery 'A clever and quirky tale... You'll find Nicola Barker's writing as easy to swallow as a glass of milk.' Cosmopolitan Small Holdings is set in an attractive park in north London. The protagonists are Phil, a chronically shy gardener; Doug, his imposing and unpredictable supervisor; and a malevolent one-legged ex-museum curator called Saleem. Phil strives nobly to maintain his equilibrium despite being systematically mystified, brutalized, drugged, derided and seduced. But when he loses his eyebrows, he decides to fight back.