Set in the mid 1950s, A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark brings to life a time and place where people were trying to recover after the devastation of the Second World War. Our narrator is Agnes "Nancy" Hawkins - although no-one uses her first name. She is a young, rather portly, war widow working in publishing, but, as was common at the time, she is living in one room of a house with other disparate people. Everyone sees Mrs Hawkins as a trustworthy, reliable individual - someone you can go to with your troubles and who would be good in a crisis. Her best friend is Millie, the landlady, with whom she spends many companionable evenings. Things are ticking along nicely until she encounters Hector Bartlett - a wannabe author whose writing is atrocious and she rejects his manuscript in the strongest of terms, in the course of which she coins an unflattering phrase to describe him. Unfortunately for Mrs Hawkins, Hector is "attached" to a very well known author who wields much power in the relatively small world of publishing, with the result that her little outburst causes her to lose not one, but two jobs. While this is happening, unsettling things start to happen at her lodgings with one of the residents, a Polish dressmaker, becoming more and more unstable. Events start to unravel, and it's not until much later that Mrs Hawkins realises how woven together all these apparently random events actually are. This book is highly enjoyable, with a cracking narrator in Mrs Hawkins, and an excellent supporting cast, all of whom are totally believable. It is evocative of the time and place and is full of detail about post-war London and the publishing world of that time. There is light and shade and dodgy dealings, but also a sense of optimism that things can get better. It's the first book by Muriel Spark that I have read, but I'm sure it won't be my last.
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 208 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.
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