The Tunnels is the debut novel by English arts journalist Ian Watson. Described as a “suburban science fantasy ghost story”, The Tunnels features robots, magicians, avenging clowns, spectral staircases, occult boot fairs, ancient scrolls, chilling incantations and tables that defy the laws of reality, alongside lashings of banoffee pie, seditionary cupcakes, cider brewed by an anarchist collective, mind-blowing curry and discount egg slicers. It is both a doomed love story and a hymn to community, with just a tiny bit of revolution stirred in for good measure