Vyv Hope-Scott

An excellent book, I remember the delicious feeling around p50 when I was completely hooked yet so much still to enjoy. If, like me, you know the St John's Gate bit of Clerkenwell, have relatives in Cornwall, and enjoy drinking beer in Soho, this novel will be a pretty good fit. Rowling is very good at little observations, about smells, about how people behave in public, little turns of phrase which are a real joy to read. Minor criticisms: the over long Faerie Queene quotes before every chapter I just stopped reading; the will-they-won't-they relationship and endless family turmoil gets tedious; and this is not a book to read if you're attempting Dry January as every other scene takes place in a pub, a restaurant, or over a bottle of Scotch.

There is something beautiful about this book. Sometimes a book just catches you at the right time and I suppose this did so for me. It has a serenity about it which was quite unexpected, somehow combined with page-turning urgency. The narrator has a slightly poetic delivery which put me in mind of Italo Calvino, or even WG Sebald. I just wish it had been longer, I read it in two sittings.