Death and the Harlot - Georgina Clarke

64%

24.06.25

I want to describe this as a Regency romp, but it's set too late to be Regency and is too serious in places to be a romp. But it's a fun read with well-drawn characters, good world-building and no embarrassing attempts at realistic period dialogue. Yes, the identity of the villain quickly becomes obvious but it's an entertaining journey to their unveiling.

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

74%

07.01.21

This multi-textured modern fairytale/mystery/philosophical musing could have been pretentious and awkward. It mostly - miraculously - wasn't. I loved it as much as I did Strange and Norrell. I'd be surprised if I read anything else as good this year.
 

The Chymical Wedding - Lindsay Clarke

64%
15.01.15

Written in the late 1980s, this seems old-fashioned in some ways - unashamedly intellectual and brazenly masculine. I can't pretend to have understood a lot of it, or to have empathised with any of the characters, who did very little over 500 pages. Nevertheless, many sections were utterly gripping - how did he do that?

The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke

53%
21.12.07



Whimsical short stories in the Victorian revivalist style of her novel 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell'. Pleasant enough, but unfortunately no real bite.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke

19.03.06
74%




Huge in every sense, but most of all hugely enjoyable: clever and deep and dense. Perhaps a little more editorial intervention would have been a benefit, but otherwise it is a richly imagined fantasy novel, backed up with convincing context - and humour - as it should be.