Book Reviews

The Vanishing Futurist
by Charlotte Hobson
pub Faber £8.99 pbk
This is the engaging tale of Gertie Freely, who at eighty is remembering her unusual youth, and setting down her secrets for her daughter. Having travelled from her cramped and stifled Edwardian girlhood to pre-revolutionary Russia as a governess, Gertie immediately falls for the relative freedom of life in Moscow and the charms of the lively, liberal and chaotic household of her employers, the Kobelevs. The household consists of an ever-changing circle of servants, former employees, extended family and various hangers on. including a lodger, quantum physicist, Nikita Slavkin.
When the revolution sweeps away much of the Moscow she knows, Gertie is caught up in the exhilaration of the possibility of a new world, and opts to stay there with her friends rather than return to England. Entranced by Slavkin’s dreams of a future when humans have perfected themselves, she joins his experiment in communal living, buoyant and full of fervour, even as the city disintegrates into chaos around them.
As it becomes harder and harder to believe in the dream while communism’s present darkens into totalitarianism, Slavkin becomes more and more obsessed with escaping into the future…
This is an interesting novel, taking a sideways look at a fascinating period of history, a moment where the established order was swept away and anything at all seemed possible, leading to an often hilarious flowering of theories and ideologies. Well worth a read.

Spook Street
by Mick Herron
pub Hodder £14.99 hbk
The fourth of Mick Herron’s very amusing series of spy thrillers set in grim and crumbling Slough House, a government department where the “slow horses” ie those British spies who are damaged, broken or simply useless – are put out to grass, supervised intermittently by the subversive, and slovenly Jackson Lamb. Brilliantly plotted, each novel can easily stand alone and the sometimes quite awful but very cleverly drawn  characters together with the intimate and familiar atmosphere of office life pull the reader into a world which is all too believable. The spy novel is not a generally a genre that appeals to me, but this series can be quite addictive.
“Herron draws his readers so fully into the world of Slough House that the incautious might find themselves slipping between the pages and transformed from reader to spook. Which wouldn’t be entirely surprising; as Jackson Lamb points out, “Spooks love their stories: it’s why they’re spooks.”” Irish Times
Mick Herron will be at our author supper on Wednesday 8th March with Elly Griffiths.

The Upcycled Garden
by Steven Wooster and Susan Berry
pub Berry & Co £15.99
This a collection of 25 useful and attractive projects for the garden, using mainly second hand materials, including a greenhouse made from old windows, pallet window boxes, screens, decking and garden furniture. Perfect for someone with a garden or allotment, a

First Bite: How We Learn To Eat
Bee Wilson
4th Estate, £8.99
Bee Wilson is a thoughtful and wide ranging food writer and historian, and her latest book, about the way we learn to eat, is absolutely fascinating. The fact that children from different cultures can grow up to have such widely varying tastes, points the fact that tastes are learnt, not innate, although the continuing growth of a western-style diet high in fats and sugars does point to some innate preferences. But Wilson’s point is that our palates can be educated and changed for the better, and she has some useful practical advice on this, though this is not a diet book, rather a look at the cultural, historical and scientific background of the way we eat.

Children’s Books

The Night Spinner
by Abi Elphinstone
pub Simon & Schuster Children’s Books
The conclusion of the gripping trilogy that began with The Dreamsnatcher. Moll Pecksniff sets out on an adventure across the northern wilderness with her trusty wildcat Gryff and her friend Siddy. A Shadowmask named Wormhook has woven a menacing Veil which fills minds with a Dark Magic. To defeat this they must brave the Lost Isles, scale the Barbed Peaks and face witches, goblins and giants who lurk at every turn ...while the Shadowmasks draw ever closer. Great stuff for children aged 8 -12 who enjoy JK Rowling and Eve Ibbotson.

Captain McGrew Wants You for His Crew!
by Mark Sperring
pub Bloomsbury £6.99 pbk
A jolly picture book for young pirate enthusiasts. Can they wash down the poop deck, climb up the rigging or find where X marks the spot and get ready for the job of digging?  This rhyming tale shows what hard work this all can be for a young pirate. Good fun.