Francis King
Trade Secrets
The most extraordinary aspect of this extraordinary novel is the vividness with which its author evokes a small, secret pocket, long since demolished, of the City of London as it used to be during the hot summer of 1967. Skin Lane, which provides the book with its vaguely sinister title, is a fictional street that, like the real-life Skinners Lane, is a turning off Garlick Hill. At the time of the story, it is the heart of the fur trade, the employers and proprietors of which are predominantly Jewish. Now, when it often requires courage or defiance to wear a fur coat, these establishments have vanished, either closed down or, in a few cases, moved to places with less ancient histories and lower rents.
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
'Reading Taylor’s book has also made me join a book club. I did not like the January book; I did enjoy drinking gin while saying why.'
@clamorousvoice explores the history of women readers.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/she-readers
'When the language starts functioning as a character in fiction, when it is there drawing attention to itself ... It’s not anything that anybody really takes seriously.'
Our interview with Anthony Burgess from 1983.
http://ow.ly/5u0y50yrjoO
'Sabotage became so prevalent that bankers even created their own terms – ‘asymmetric information’, ‘lack of financial literacy’, ‘the principal-agent dilemma’ – to describe how they might turn a dime from customers’ gullibility or ignorance.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/master-criminals-of-the-universe