Divided Kingdom

The 2005 novel imagines a former United Kingdom divided into four color-coded regions. Each region is assigned a dominant temperament based on the classical theory of the four humors.

The story follows Thomas Parry, who moves through the divided society and encounters the consequences of its rigid classification system. His journey gives the novel its picaresque, observant perspective.

They are based on the classical four humors and their associated temperaments. The system turns personality into a political geography, making the novel's social divisions literal as well as psychological.

It is a speculative 2005 novel rather than a straightforward account of real British politics. Its imagined four-region United Kingdom lets Rupert Thomson explore identity, conformity, and social control through an invented system.