Deborah Valentine's Blog
December 3, 2014
FOXGLOVE SUMMER… and all the other books by Ben Aaronovitch
Britain’s youngest official wizard, apprentice PC Peter Grant, is the highly addictive creation of Ben Aaronovitch—addictive in that once you start reading about him you don’t want to stop. He’s a young man who can sniff out the magic—literally (it’s called vestigia). His capacity for inadvertently destroying property and London landmarks (both real and imaginary) keep the action on a knife’s edge.
We’re first introduced to him in, RIVERS OF LONDON, as a mixed-race constable on the beat at the very beginning of his career. Along with him we meet the mysterious soon-to-be-his-governor Inspector Nightingale, head of the Folly, a branch of the Met proper coppers recognise the need for but don’t really want to talk about. It deals with all the “weird bollocks”. We meet the deities of the Thames and its tributaries. We are introduced to a whole supernatural London sub-culture along with the intricate policies and politics of the Metropolitan Police.
Aaronovitch is a quintessential London writer. It could be argued he’s done more for ‘multi-cultural’ London than any literary tome and certainly more than a whole sheath of government reports. What makes the supernatural elements so convincing is the reality he’s embedded it in. He knows London. You recognise the streets and buildings, you know the people. The way Londoners think‚ the way they constantly speculate on property values, it’s all there. As someone remarked to me recently, “it’s your London he is describing, my London, the diversity we know and love so well woven into his writing”. And, I might add, served up with engaging wit and humour though PC Grant’s eyes.
In MOON OVER SOHO we get the London jazz scene and a wonderful depiction of Soho in all its natural oddities you might be familiar with and a few unnatural ones you (probably, hopefully) aren’t. His WHISPERS UNDERGROUND excited my imagination enough to get me (marginally) tolerant of the Tube. Okay, I use it rarely and never at rush hour. You have to understand I don’t even close the blinds in my flat because they make me feel hemmed in. But still, it’s an accomplishment and it’s down to PC Grant. BROKEN HOMES takes the phrase to a whole new level when Grant is once again challenged, this time by the very architecture of London.
So, in Aaronovitch’s new book, FOXGLOVE SUMMER, what’s he doing in the countryside? Will it translate?
It does. He sees it through a Londoner’s eye—but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done his homework. Aaronovitch already has a convincing breadth of knowledge on everything from history to architecture to police procedure to management-speak. Now he’s added land management.
When two little girls go missing Nightingale sends Grant on a reconnaissance mission to the wilds of Herefordshire—just to rule out any rogue magician element to their disappearance. And when that seems unlikely, Grant stays on because, well, it’s two little kids and all hands on deck. Soon, at Nightingale’s behest, he’s joined by the goddess of a Thames tributary, Beverly Brook. And what they get up to you have to read.
Despite the field of white faces it turns out rural England has many of the accoutrements of the city including gastropubs, gay policemen and people with dark, dirty secrets—and a few it doesn’t (like possible aliens and UFOs). I recognised an accurate description of rural rollercoaster free-for-all roads from my own ventures into “everywhere else”, (ie, not London).
Aaronovitch captures the fear and tension of the parents awaiting news. You learn a little more of the mysterious happenings at Ettersberg (no, I’m not telling you what). And you meet more beings that don’t quite fit the appellation of ‘human’ and find some fairy tale figures have much better PR than they deserve. What’s most seductive are the thoughts and observations of Peter Grant himself. As these are first-person narratives, dwelling in his head is a very entertaining place to be.
My only complaint, and this is a personal prejudice, is there’s too little of Nightingale in this book. I have a bit of a crush. But that’s a minor niggle. I couldn’t put it down. It builds to a tense and ever-twisting conclusion. Beyond that, you feel overall these stories are leading up to Something Big. The clues are there, dropped throughout the series adding another layer of curiosity and tension.
But you don’t have to have read the whole series to enjoy each book individually. You don’t have to be a Londoner. If you love London from a distance it will give you a fix. Even if you hate London you can sit smugly in your armchair and enjoy the ride.
At a recent talk given by Mr Aaronovitch at Waterstones Trafalgar Square (which, by the way, had an excellent reading by the actor Kobna Holbrook-Smith, who does the audio books), he suggested at some point he’d like PC Grant to visit Paris, perhaps have him meet the deity of the Seine.
I’m up for it—and not just because I’d like to see the impossibly romantic Leslie Howard-like figure of Inspector Nightingale wandering its streets.
The question is, will Paris be ready for PC Grant? One can only ponder with delicious apprehension on what might befall the Eiffel Tower.
Oh-la-la.
We’re first introduced to him in, RIVERS OF LONDON, as a mixed-race constable on the beat at the very beginning of his career. Along with him we meet the mysterious soon-to-be-his-governor Inspector Nightingale, head of the Folly, a branch of the Met proper coppers recognise the need for but don’t really want to talk about. It deals with all the “weird bollocks”. We meet the deities of the Thames and its tributaries. We are introduced to a whole supernatural London sub-culture along with the intricate policies and politics of the Metropolitan Police.
Aaronovitch is a quintessential London writer. It could be argued he’s done more for ‘multi-cultural’ London than any literary tome and certainly more than a whole sheath of government reports. What makes the supernatural elements so convincing is the reality he’s embedded it in. He knows London. You recognise the streets and buildings, you know the people. The way Londoners think‚ the way they constantly speculate on property values, it’s all there. As someone remarked to me recently, “it’s your London he is describing, my London, the diversity we know and love so well woven into his writing”. And, I might add, served up with engaging wit and humour though PC Grant’s eyes.
In MOON OVER SOHO we get the London jazz scene and a wonderful depiction of Soho in all its natural oddities you might be familiar with and a few unnatural ones you (probably, hopefully) aren’t. His WHISPERS UNDERGROUND excited my imagination enough to get me (marginally) tolerant of the Tube. Okay, I use it rarely and never at rush hour. You have to understand I don’t even close the blinds in my flat because they make me feel hemmed in. But still, it’s an accomplishment and it’s down to PC Grant. BROKEN HOMES takes the phrase to a whole new level when Grant is once again challenged, this time by the very architecture of London.
So, in Aaronovitch’s new book, FOXGLOVE SUMMER, what’s he doing in the countryside? Will it translate?
It does. He sees it through a Londoner’s eye—but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done his homework. Aaronovitch already has a convincing breadth of knowledge on everything from history to architecture to police procedure to management-speak. Now he’s added land management.
When two little girls go missing Nightingale sends Grant on a reconnaissance mission to the wilds of Herefordshire—just to rule out any rogue magician element to their disappearance. And when that seems unlikely, Grant stays on because, well, it’s two little kids and all hands on deck. Soon, at Nightingale’s behest, he’s joined by the goddess of a Thames tributary, Beverly Brook. And what they get up to you have to read.
Despite the field of white faces it turns out rural England has many of the accoutrements of the city including gastropubs, gay policemen and people with dark, dirty secrets—and a few it doesn’t (like possible aliens and UFOs). I recognised an accurate description of rural rollercoaster free-for-all roads from my own ventures into “everywhere else”, (ie, not London).
Aaronovitch captures the fear and tension of the parents awaiting news. You learn a little more of the mysterious happenings at Ettersberg (no, I’m not telling you what). And you meet more beings that don’t quite fit the appellation of ‘human’ and find some fairy tale figures have much better PR than they deserve. What’s most seductive are the thoughts and observations of Peter Grant himself. As these are first-person narratives, dwelling in his head is a very entertaining place to be.
My only complaint, and this is a personal prejudice, is there’s too little of Nightingale in this book. I have a bit of a crush. But that’s a minor niggle. I couldn’t put it down. It builds to a tense and ever-twisting conclusion. Beyond that, you feel overall these stories are leading up to Something Big. The clues are there, dropped throughout the series adding another layer of curiosity and tension.
But you don’t have to have read the whole series to enjoy each book individually. You don’t have to be a Londoner. If you love London from a distance it will give you a fix. Even if you hate London you can sit smugly in your armchair and enjoy the ride.
At a recent talk given by Mr Aaronovitch at Waterstones Trafalgar Square (which, by the way, had an excellent reading by the actor Kobna Holbrook-Smith, who does the audio books), he suggested at some point he’d like PC Grant to visit Paris, perhaps have him meet the deity of the Seine.
I’m up for it—and not just because I’d like to see the impossibly romantic Leslie Howard-like figure of Inspector Nightingale wandering its streets.
The question is, will Paris be ready for PC Grant? One can only ponder with delicious apprehension on what might befall the Eiffel Tower.
Oh-la-la.
