Ian Critchley
Three Get into Trouble
The year 1968 was one of global turmoil, a terrible hangover after the revelries of the ‘summer of love’ the previous year. The ongoing war in Vietnam, the riots in Paris and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy – all of these rumble in the background of William Boyd’s sixteenth novel, Trio. But its three main characters, temporarily living in Brighton during that troubled year, have many other things on their minds. American actress Anny Viklund is shooting a film called Emily Bracegirdle’s Extremely Useful Ladder to the Moon, the producer of which, Talbot Kydd, is increasingly beleaguered. Elfrida Wing, the wife of the film’s director, is a novelist who hasn’t written anything for ten years.
Each of them is nursing a secret life. Talbot, married with two children, is firmly in the closet but wondering if now would be a good time finally to come out of it. Elfrida is an alcoholic, keeping her stash of vodka camouflaged in a bottle that formerly held white
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
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma