The City By Richard Haigh

The City
By Richard Haigh
1986 Grafton
Paperback, 191 pages

                The City is the second in Richard Haigh’s (Laurence James’) proposed trilogy of killer pig novels. The first chapter here even refers to the trilogy! Unfortunately, that third book never came out. This first sequel to 1984’s The Farm brings back the Buckland Whites, the breed of killer pigs that were, along with scores of other animals, chemically altered in the first book. The set-up is absolutely amazing.

 

                Britain’s biggest ever agricultural fair is being held at Wembley Stadium. Farm equipment, livestock; everything you would need to have the farm of your dreams under one roof. Including thirty Buckland Whites, “the killer pigs from Hobbs Farm in Wales” as a chief attraction. Fun for the whole family. As expected, an animal rights group ANL (Animals Need Life) plan to disrupt the show with demonstrations and the freeing of the caged animals.

 

                Our hero, TV journalist Jill Wallace is pretty bored with her assignment to cover this dull show but she’s there anyway and cover it she will. Also in the building is a model super-modern farm home with all the bells and whistles, including a family living in it for the duration of the event, a children’s TV show broadcasting live, a surly, racist guard who isn’t afraid to kill, an SAS unit of the army on premises, food vendors (lots of bacon) and, of course, the demonstrators. James really ratchets up the wait, giving you many characters that you need to see become pig chow and holds off for two-thirds of the book until you’re ready to burst.

 

                Then, he hits you with it. Hard.

 

                I haven’t read this much of a book aloud to my wife in my excitement in a long time. You see, Laurence James is an excellent writer, and his bloodletting can be downright poetic. This next passage is worth the cost of this rather hard-to-find, expensive paperback, as the wife in the model home is about to meet her maker… “Her last coherent thought, before she became preoccupied with the mystery of her own dying, was how very loud the crumpling bones of her skull seemed to sound.” Goddamn, that’s good. This book is far less mean-spirited and has less graphic sex than the first one but it too is a corker.

 

                While we enjoy reprints of the first two killer pig novels, (The Farm reprint was released in Spring 2026 by Valancourt Books!), we can dream about what James had in mind for the third book. The ending of The City is a cliffhanger set up for it, but apparently it was never written. James died in 2000. Perhaps, one day, the manuscript for The Continent or something will be found in a drawer and the killer pigs will return. Until then, get and enjoy the first two. Essential reading.

 

                An amazing full view of Les Edwards’ cropped cover painting for this book can be seen in Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell (Quirk, 2017). (Update 2: The full cover is also on Carboard Coffin Press’s upcoming release of The City!!!!!!)