Jeremy Underwood is a long-suffering subeditor on The Daily Beast, Britain's mightiest tabloid. Returning from holiday, he notices two burqa-clad figures lurking outside the paper's offices in Kensington. Fear is in the air since two male suspects escaped from a mosque. Jeremy's observation sets off a chain of events that rapidly escalates, as the great Beast comes under siege.

Alexander Starritt's novel is a vivid anatomy of that most uncontrollable and irresponsible of large creatures, the British tabloid newspaper. He writes with pinpoint precision about the ways in which scapegoats are selected by an institution that sees itself as the voice of Middle England. The fearsome professionalism and manic rivalries of a newsroom have rarely been so well described. This is a compelling novel in which comedy teeters on the edge of horror.