''In the novel ‘Mercy’, Alan Dacres is one of the last people to discover the new world in later life, his joy in 1995 pronounced at finding the internet just at the moment when he is embarking on an act of revenge against five people who bullied him at school. His memory, ignited by a return to the town where all of this happened 45 years earlier, is stimulated by the realisation that this new unpoliced and unrestricted computerised access to people’s personal information can give him addresses and the backstory he requires to put into action his plan for revenge. The puppets that will facilitate and satiate his great thirst for retribution are the young who will do whatever seemingly harmless act they are asked to, his money the currency for his malevolence. He seems strangely unaware of the consequences of his actions, even uncaring, but reading the book in 2018 this feels normal. It wouldn’t have been in 1995.''

''The novel examines the first fatal steps of the new world information width. When the control is taken from the state and left in the hands of skilful amoral opportunists, a new world order is established. The filleting of choice into segments so tiny that generalities come rare and thin out actions on culture. Culture comes from shared ideology, a love of belief and an investment in a notion of truth. In a world where truth has been cremated, its ashes fill the air. To breathe them in is to accept a dim floating future of communication nothingness.''