Genre: Historical
fiction
Description:
This is both a sequel to the author’s
earlier book, Of All Faiths & None (which won awards) and a
standalone novel set between the latter days of World War I and the Fifties. It
moves between Britain, California, India, Vienna and Kenya. It picks up where
the first in this (short) series ends and continues a fictionalised story of
the people involved with the building of Castle Drogo: its architect’s and its
owner’s families and friends.
Author:
Andrew Tweeddale started his working life as
a chef, went to university as a mature student to read Law, then worked in the
legal world for some 30 years first as a criminal barrister, then as a solicitor
before beginning his writing career. This is his second novel. This novel was
short-listed for the Yeovil novel prize (a prestigious British award) which is
why I picked it for review. I hope Tweeddale continues in his new career – he
has a gift for telling an involved and involving story clearly at a good pace.
He splits his time between Spain and London.
Appraisal:
The families upon which the stories are
based, some of the events, and all of the historical underpinnings in the book are
real. Some of the characters bear the names of real people but Tweeddale
assures the reader that they are, nonetheless, all entirely fictitious. I’m not
sure what I think about that. However, as Tweeddale was a lawyer in a previous
life I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. And you cannot libel the dead … The
historical setting is rendered with a light touch as it moves forward in time.
The language used never throws the reader out of its period. And it is always
made clear ‘when’ we are as well as where.
This is an intricate work of fiction with a
large cast of characters, who enter and leave and re-enter the book, sometimes with
many years passing between appearances. Some of them, by contrast, cast a long
shadow by their absence. The author maintains a godlike overview of the action,
which could have been distancing but which, instead, enables the reader to keep
the plot and action straight in what could otherwise have been quite a noisy
novel. You may guess that, with so much going on, the book is not short. But it
is consistently absorbing. The pages turn themselves. One becomes really
invested in the characters.
I became increasingly delighted by the novel
the more I read, and was saddened when I had to leave it, having turned the
final page. There are not so many books which have this kind of power. I will
definitely be investigating Of All Faiths & None.
Tweeddale says of his book “[it] is intended
to take the reader through some of the darkest moments of our recent history
and [show] how, as a society, we still make the same mistakes today. It does
not seek to apportion blame but invites the reader to question the lessons that
history teaches us.”
This is a beautifully written novel. Early
in my reading of it, it began to remind me, in its tone and scope, of A
Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell. In his afterword the author
says that he was keen to avoid it becoming too like Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead
Revisited – but there are definite resonances. There may, too, be a faint
whiff of The Camomile Lawn which rises from it. If you like that sort of
reading, you will enjoy this.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 115-120,000 words
