A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Rivers of London #0.6

by Ben Aaronovitch

A Dedicated Follower of Fashion is a short story published as an 'extra' in the Waterstone’s Special Edition of False Value, and also included in Tales from the Folly.

Set in Earlsfield in 1967, where a drug dealer (and luxury cloth smuggler) and his helpers hide in a squat right beside the river Wandle. The river floods his stash and miracles ensue.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Urban Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction, Crime, Humor

30 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2020

About the author

Ben Aaronovitch's career started with a bang writing for Doctor Who, subsided in the middle and then, as is traditional, a third act resurgence with the bestselling Rivers of London series.

Born and raised in London he says that he'll leave his home when they prise his city out of his cold dead fingers.

Reviews

[Suvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Deplorables continue the parade of small glimpses of great side characters, but the protagonist and his friends and whatever they had going on kind of left me cold. The basement part was great, though, and I couldn't really tell where the story was going.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Dedicated Follower Of Fashion is a short story in the Rivers Of London series by best-selling British author, Ben Aaronovitch. 1967 Earlsfield, and the unnamed protagonist, a man with a taste for fashion, admits to being a middle-man drug dealer doing a bit of smuggling of fine Egyptian cotton on the side. When a particular transaction goes astray, he and his friends end up on the run from the Deplorables, Cutter, Lead Pipe & Gnasher, who are chasing him for ten thousand pounds.
A squat by the river is surely a good place to hide, with a nice cellar to store his bolts of cotton. But then the river floods the basement, and weird things happen that might, or might not, have anything to do with some lysergic acid… And when the Deplorables track him down, is it all over bar the sledge hammer and the marlin spike?

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as part of Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection originally, then as a separate story.

A mildly amusing frippery that does have a point (in that a running theme of the RoL series is the rebirths of the river gods.) The reference to Michael Moorcock had me amused, too, especially as Aaronovitch hints at the protagonist being the inspiration not only for the title song but also Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of the Rivers of London short stories; this time a historical one set in the 1960s. I enjoyed it, but I have to admit that I prefer Peter Grant as the protagonist - I find him effortlessly funny, whereas I feel that this should be funny but isn't... like it's trying a little too hard to be humorous. The only time it felt as if it was a Rivers story, tonally, was the Deplorables criticising the house as unfit for a baby at the end.

That being said, the fabric imagery down in the basement was really cool. I liked that, and the history behind it.

[Alex Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably not read enough of the series so far to appreciate this one.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I really liked the bit about the enchanted basement, but I don’t recognize any characters or how this fits into the series (except that it features a river). Maybe that will become clear later.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to, part of “Tales from the Folly”

[Gill]

Contained within Tales From the Folly collection.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd one. The story was pretty meh but there were some very funny parts of the dialogue. The narrator of the audiobook, Ben Elliot, was great.

[Donald Dudley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one really was a miss for me. It’s the first one I didn’t really like at all.

[Megan S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was weird and poetic.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved it! I love all of these tales! This is a must read series! I can’t wait for more tales!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a lot happens, and I don't even really know who these characters are, but there's some of that droll humor that I enjoy in this author's work. I enjoyed it. 3.5-3.75 stars.