Ian Critchley
Capital Murder
Lily: A Tale of Revenge
By Rose Tremain
Chatto & Windus 281pp £18.99
Rose Tremain used to chafe against being called a historical novelist, a description that seemed to stick to her after the publication of her breakthrough novel, the Booker Prize-shortlisted Restoration (1989), despite the fact that she has published several novels set in the present. But in recent years she appears to have embraced the genre. Her last three novels are all set in the past: Merivel (2012), a sequel to Restoration, returns to the 1600s, The Gustav Sonata (2016) plays out during and just after the Second World War and Islands of Mercy (2020) is set in the 1860s. Since the publication of Restoration (and, Tremain has suggested, partly because of it), historical fiction has become an increasingly popular genre. She is one of its very best exponents.
In Lily, her fifteenth novel, we are again taken back to the 1860s. Sixteen-year-old Lily Mortimer works at Belle Prettywood’s Wig Emporium on London’s Long Acre. She is good at her job and enjoys an excellent working relationship with Belle, but she is hiding a dark secret: she is
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm