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James Ross #1
At the Chime of a City Clock
Summer 1931 in seedy Bayswater and James Ross is on his uppers. An aspiring writer whose stories nobody will buy, with a landlady harassing him for unpaid rent, he is reduced to selling carpet-cleaning lotion door-to-door. His prospects brighten when he meets the glamorous Suzi, but their relationship turns out to be a source of increasing bafflement. Who is her boss, the enigmatic Mr Rasmussen - whose face bears a startling resemblance to one of the portraits in 'Police News' - and why is he so interested in the abandoned premises above the Cornhill jeweller's shop?
Worse, mysterious Mr Haversham from West End Central is starting to take an interest in his affairs. With a brief to keep an eye on Rasmussen, James finds himself staying incognito at a grand society weekend at a country house in Sussex, where the truth - about Rasmussen and Suzi - comes as an unexpected shock.
Set against the backdrop of the 1931 financial crisis and the abandonment of the Gold Standard, 'At the Chime of a City Clock' is a brilliantly evoked slice of thirties noir.
Worse, mysterious Mr Haversham from West End Central is starting to take an interest in his affairs. With a brief to keep an eye on Rasmussen, James finds himself staying incognito at a grand society weekend at a country house in Sussex, where the truth - about Rasmussen and Suzi - comes as an unexpected shock.
Set against the backdrop of the 1931 financial crisis and the abandonment of the Gold Standard, 'At the Chime of a City Clock' is a brilliantly evoked slice of thirties noir.
242 pages, Hardcover
First published March 25, 2010
About the author
D.J. Taylor
80 books98 followersDavid John Taylor (born 1960) is a critic, novelist and biographer. After attending school in Norwich, he read Modern History at St John's College, Oxford, and has received the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award for his life of George Orwell.
He lives in Norwich and contributes to The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman and The Spectator among other publications.
He is married to the novelist Rachel Hore, and together they have three sons.
He lives in Norwich and contributes to The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman and The Spectator among other publications.
He is married to the novelist Rachel Hore, and together they have three sons.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 18, 2015
It is a complete mystery to me why D J Taylor's books don't score as highly as I think they should. My ratings so far: Kept - 5 stars, Derby Day - 5 stars, Ask Alice - 5 stars. His writing is absolutely beautiful; I can think of no other who can put sentences together like he can, create imagery like he can and keep me turning pages like he can. I'm addicted.
May 19, 2016
Written in the first person by James Ross, an aspiring writer who has little success in selling his short stories, 'At the Chime of a City Clock' is very atmospheric of London in the 1930s - and the cover is a superb period piece to match.
Ross lives in rented accommodation and has a landlady who is always chasing him for the rent, which sometimes does not get paid; at such times she introduces her tough looking son to persuade Ross that he should make an effort to pay up. This impecunious state forces Ross to accept a job as a door-to-door salesman selling carpet cleaning lotion.
He has a patch in Bayswater and DJ Taylor captures the area admirably with the large Georgian houses portrayed just as many of them still are. He wanders around the area and even sells in Inverness Terrace, where I once lived at number 40 in a Civil Service hostel as a teenager, but eventually he exhausts the possibilities so he moves on to Golders Green, where he meets with little success. So it is back to Bayswater to soldier on!
He meets a young lady, Susie, but he is unable to form a definite attachment at first and while trying he comes across her mysterious boss, a Mr Rasmussen. Ross tries to discover what business Rasmussen is in with little success but it later transpires that, whatever it is, it is somewhat shady. Susie eventually allows Ross to take her out for lunch to a Lyons Corner House (I remember them well from my first visit to London as a 10-year-old) and from there their relationship develops just a little.
Ross even manages to masquerade as someone else at a country house party that Susie attends and that is when the relationship is sealed - at least it seems so until Susie goes cool and disappears. Meanwhile Mr Rasmussen is involved in breaking into a jeweller's warehouse but circumstances force him and his co-conspirators to abandon the idea before any loot is acquired. No wonder Ross had seen what appeared to be Mr Rasmussen's mug shot in an edition of 'Police News'.
The action, or relative in-action, continues until Ross, still penniless, returns home to Tenterden to live with his mother where he reverts to his writing career and has some modest success with articles submitted to the 'Blue Bugloss'. Thereafter he continues to live a rather nondescript life while Mr Rasmussen sails away from England enjoying life with a new secretary, Miss Chamberlain.
'At the Chime of a City Clock' cannot be described as a thriller for the action is not fast and furious but is rather like a 20th century 'Cranford' or, as I thought all the way through, rather like George and Weedon Grossmith's 'Diary of a Nobody'. Image my surprise when on page 207 (of 232) I discovered 'Afterwards there were charades or something in the drawing-room, but I thought I'd give them a miss. Instead I went back to my room and read a copy of 'A Diary of a Nobody', which I'd found in the library.' Perhaps DJ Taylor was writing the book in the same way that I was thinking about it.
Having said that I enjoyed the intriguing story and it was most certainly atmospheric with many places that I knew, such as Old Street (where, again as a teenager, I was stopped by a police car for allegedly shooting a red light - I argued until I realised that I was not going to win and reluctantly agreed with the officer who them let me go with a warning!), City Road and other London haunts.
As a consequence, I do feel that this is a book not to be dismissed lightly and is one that will fester in one's imagination and will possibly appear to get even better as time passes.
19 October 2024
'Seedy Bayswater' is the description of the setting of this book but the main protagonist James Ross travels all round London, trying to make a living as a door-to-door carpet lotion salesman. He meets up with various characters, some good, others bad and enjoys, or even endures, interesting adventures on his travels.
The ambience is very good - it even brought back memories for me with his comment about going to the Georgian four storey houses in Inverness Terrace because I lived in one (or rather three knocked into one -Hotel Forty as that was its number) which was a hostel for Civil Servants for two or three years. The strapline on the cover states the books is 'A Thriller' but while there are thrills in the story, it is not exactly my idea as such.
However, that does not take away from the fact that it is exciting in parts and it does qualify as a taste of 1930s noir. I notice that the first time I read it, I mentioned that it would fester in the imagination and would possibly get better as one reflected on it. Well, yes that is true as it still makes one think about what is going on and why but the three-star rating still stands.
Ross lives in rented accommodation and has a landlady who is always chasing him for the rent, which sometimes does not get paid; at such times she introduces her tough looking son to persuade Ross that he should make an effort to pay up. This impecunious state forces Ross to accept a job as a door-to-door salesman selling carpet cleaning lotion.
He has a patch in Bayswater and DJ Taylor captures the area admirably with the large Georgian houses portrayed just as many of them still are. He wanders around the area and even sells in Inverness Terrace, where I once lived at number 40 in a Civil Service hostel as a teenager, but eventually he exhausts the possibilities so he moves on to Golders Green, where he meets with little success. So it is back to Bayswater to soldier on!
He meets a young lady, Susie, but he is unable to form a definite attachment at first and while trying he comes across her mysterious boss, a Mr Rasmussen. Ross tries to discover what business Rasmussen is in with little success but it later transpires that, whatever it is, it is somewhat shady. Susie eventually allows Ross to take her out for lunch to a Lyons Corner House (I remember them well from my first visit to London as a 10-year-old) and from there their relationship develops just a little.
Ross even manages to masquerade as someone else at a country house party that Susie attends and that is when the relationship is sealed - at least it seems so until Susie goes cool and disappears. Meanwhile Mr Rasmussen is involved in breaking into a jeweller's warehouse but circumstances force him and his co-conspirators to abandon the idea before any loot is acquired. No wonder Ross had seen what appeared to be Mr Rasmussen's mug shot in an edition of 'Police News'.
The action, or relative in-action, continues until Ross, still penniless, returns home to Tenterden to live with his mother where he reverts to his writing career and has some modest success with articles submitted to the 'Blue Bugloss'. Thereafter he continues to live a rather nondescript life while Mr Rasmussen sails away from England enjoying life with a new secretary, Miss Chamberlain.
'At the Chime of a City Clock' cannot be described as a thriller for the action is not fast and furious but is rather like a 20th century 'Cranford' or, as I thought all the way through, rather like George and Weedon Grossmith's 'Diary of a Nobody'. Image my surprise when on page 207 (of 232) I discovered 'Afterwards there were charades or something in the drawing-room, but I thought I'd give them a miss. Instead I went back to my room and read a copy of 'A Diary of a Nobody', which I'd found in the library.' Perhaps DJ Taylor was writing the book in the same way that I was thinking about it.
Having said that I enjoyed the intriguing story and it was most certainly atmospheric with many places that I knew, such as Old Street (where, again as a teenager, I was stopped by a police car for allegedly shooting a red light - I argued until I realised that I was not going to win and reluctantly agreed with the officer who them let me go with a warning!), City Road and other London haunts.
As a consequence, I do feel that this is a book not to be dismissed lightly and is one that will fester in one's imagination and will possibly appear to get even better as time passes.
19 October 2024
'Seedy Bayswater' is the description of the setting of this book but the main protagonist James Ross travels all round London, trying to make a living as a door-to-door carpet lotion salesman. He meets up with various characters, some good, others bad and enjoys, or even endures, interesting adventures on his travels.
The ambience is very good - it even brought back memories for me with his comment about going to the Georgian four storey houses in Inverness Terrace because I lived in one (or rather three knocked into one -Hotel Forty as that was its number) which was a hostel for Civil Servants for two or three years. The strapline on the cover states the books is 'A Thriller' but while there are thrills in the story, it is not exactly my idea as such.
However, that does not take away from the fact that it is exciting in parts and it does qualify as a taste of 1930s noir. I notice that the first time I read it, I mentioned that it would fester in the imagination and would possibly get better as one reflected on it. Well, yes that is true as it still makes one think about what is going on and why but the three-star rating still stands.
April 28, 2013
This book beautifully evokes a slice of Thirties London. James Ross, struggling writer, inhabits a world of gloomy bedsits, door to door sales and seedy Soho pubs. He meets Suzi, a beautiful but enigmatic woman, and becomes embroiled in the fortunes of her boss, the sinister and criminal Mr Rasmussen. Leo, a small-time villain, also wants to speak to Rasmussen, who meanwhile is making a mark on society. The plot builds as Ross anticipates his arrival at the inevitable country house weekend...
I was completely seduced by the world of the novel and Taylor’s spare prose. I couldn’t wait to see how he would tie together the disparate ends of the story. And then it all just fizzled out. Was he trying to make some clever postmodern point, or did he just not know how to do a proper plot? Either way I feel cheated. Four stars because I loved the rest of the book (but I’d like to say three and a half).
I was completely seduced by the world of the novel and Taylor’s spare prose. I couldn’t wait to see how he would tie together the disparate ends of the story. And then it all just fizzled out. Was he trying to make some clever postmodern point, or did he just not know how to do a proper plot? Either way I feel cheated. Four stars because I loved the rest of the book (but I’d like to say three and a half).
September 29, 2018
Malcolm Pryce does this sort of thing much better.
March 28, 2019
Entertaining. It particualrly appealed to me as I live in Bayswater, worked in the City and am not stranger to country house weekends but not generally at houses as grand as Mrs Antrobus's.
February 17, 2020
A disjointed story that was hard to keep at. I was determined to finish it but it was tough to follow and be engaged with.
March 21, 2016
Taylor, DJ. At the Chime of a City Clock
DJ Taylor, renowned as a literary critic and biographer, shows in this novel that he is equally at home in writing historical mystery novels. Set in 1930s London Taylor adopts a mainly first person narrative using down-and-out James Ross as his focus. Ross is a failed writer seeking to remain afloat by selling carpet cleaner on a door-to-door basis. He owes his landlady rent and consoles himself at the Wheatsheaf, reflecting on past loves and the possibility of making out with Susie, who works in the office of Mr Rasmussen, a wanted criminal. Susie is a delightful if unreliable young woman who admires James mainly it seems for being a writer of sorts.
This gritty novel is set in the Depression of the Thirties, long before the welfare state, when a man needed all his wits about him to survive. Most of the chapters are introduced by epigraphs of advice from the Abraxas Salesman’s Handbook, pep talks acting as an ironical contrast to the reality of life on the streets. The reader is taken to dog-racing at White City, witnesses a cat-burgler and his mates at work over a jeweller’s and finally joins Ross at a country house party at Newcome Grange, where Susie and Rasmussen occupy themselves on a higher floor, while Ross hangs about chatting to society ladies, eventually contriving to be alone with Susie - although ‘I didn’t enjoy it much. But then I never do.’
At the Chime of a City Clock is not a success story and neither does it have a happy ending. James returns to his memories, receives a letter from his ex-fiancée, but is unimpressed. He returns to his landlady, has a few poems accepted for The Blue Bugloss, which pays its contributors with Coutts and Co cheques, ‘which impresses the old lady no end.’ We leave James Ross before the final chapter with his poem published in the New English Review, December 1931, concluding with these unsentimental lines:
I was taught to believe in a better age
That had been before and would come again
Settled instead for a living wage
An English sky, and English rain.
Meanwhile Mr Rasmussen stows away with a Miss Chanberlain. Telling her he will now go into politics. ‘There’s no money to be made in business any more.’ He watches her appreciatively as she throws overboard a note from a presumed admirer and ‘A moment or two later they went below.’ Cynical, but true to life as we know it.
DJ Taylor, renowned as a literary critic and biographer, shows in this novel that he is equally at home in writing historical mystery novels. Set in 1930s London Taylor adopts a mainly first person narrative using down-and-out James Ross as his focus. Ross is a failed writer seeking to remain afloat by selling carpet cleaner on a door-to-door basis. He owes his landlady rent and consoles himself at the Wheatsheaf, reflecting on past loves and the possibility of making out with Susie, who works in the office of Mr Rasmussen, a wanted criminal. Susie is a delightful if unreliable young woman who admires James mainly it seems for being a writer of sorts.
This gritty novel is set in the Depression of the Thirties, long before the welfare state, when a man needed all his wits about him to survive. Most of the chapters are introduced by epigraphs of advice from the Abraxas Salesman’s Handbook, pep talks acting as an ironical contrast to the reality of life on the streets. The reader is taken to dog-racing at White City, witnesses a cat-burgler and his mates at work over a jeweller’s and finally joins Ross at a country house party at Newcome Grange, where Susie and Rasmussen occupy themselves on a higher floor, while Ross hangs about chatting to society ladies, eventually contriving to be alone with Susie - although ‘I didn’t enjoy it much. But then I never do.’
At the Chime of a City Clock is not a success story and neither does it have a happy ending. James returns to his memories, receives a letter from his ex-fiancée, but is unimpressed. He returns to his landlady, has a few poems accepted for The Blue Bugloss, which pays its contributors with Coutts and Co cheques, ‘which impresses the old lady no end.’ We leave James Ross before the final chapter with his poem published in the New English Review, December 1931, concluding with these unsentimental lines:
I was taught to believe in a better age
That had been before and would come again
Settled instead for a living wage
An English sky, and English rain.
Meanwhile Mr Rasmussen stows away with a Miss Chanberlain. Telling her he will now go into politics. ‘There’s no money to be made in business any more.’ He watches her appreciatively as she throws overboard a note from a presumed admirer and ‘A moment or two later they went below.’ Cynical, but true to life as we know it.
December 7, 2010
I dropped into the library on Friday to return some overdue books and ended up paying off all Darren's library fines by mistake. I wasn't going to borrow any books because the fine was making buying books look cheap but I spotted this book with a Nick Drake quote for a title and couldn't resist.
On Sunday I had most of the day to myself and picked the book up to read and finished it a few hours later. I can't remember the last time I did that.
The book doesn't have a great deal to do with the Nick Drake song except for the obvious chiming of clocks as you go through the book. It's set in 1930s London with the financial crisis playing out in the background. Loads of details evoke the period nicely. The plot is a bit thin, which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't subtitled as "a thriller" - it really doesn't deliver on that. There are criminals chased here but it's not big on action or suspense.
If I'd read the book at a slower pace I think I'd have liked it less - and reading books slowly seems to be what I do these days - but a few hours on a Sunday going round the London of the thirties with a door-to-door carpet cleaner salesman and the characters he encounters worked out to be very enjoyable.
June 11, 2012
The book is a portrait of the seedy lives of a handful of London-dwellers between the wars. Grubbiness and shabbiness seem to ooze from the pages and I didn't find any of the characters sympathetic or someone I would want to know - in fact I'd go a long way to avoid them!
There seems to be a general sense of latitude over the whole novel, various plots are hatched and plans made, but they don't pan out and just fade quietly away, never to be spoken of again. It feels as if the book is in black and white.
It's very reminiscent of the novels of Patrick Hamilton, but feels of much less consequence. It's a clever enough pastiche of the era, but it all felt a bit empty to me, as if it was done more as a writing exercise than anything else.
It's an occupying enough read while you're immersed in it, but I didn't find that it left much of an impression afterwards.
There seems to be a general sense of latitude over the whole novel, various plots are hatched and plans made, but they don't pan out and just fade quietly away, never to be spoken of again. It feels as if the book is in black and white.
It's very reminiscent of the novels of Patrick Hamilton, but feels of much less consequence. It's a clever enough pastiche of the era, but it all felt a bit empty to me, as if it was done more as a writing exercise than anything else.
It's an occupying enough read while you're immersed in it, but I didn't find that it left much of an impression afterwards.
May 4, 2011
I really got a kick out of this book although I can understand other reviewers disappointment that it didn't deliver more.
It billed itself as a noir "thriller" and there was very little to thrill, but so much atmosphere and so much fun in the squalid rooming house and depression-era challenges of a poet scraping along by selling carpet cleaner door-to-door. I enjoyed the brief "ride" through London in the 1930's and would definitely seek out the author's other books.
If you are looking for an intricate plot, or a genuine mystery, this book is not for you. It is just a romp through some rough times with not alot of action and not much resolution in the end, but some fun reading all along the way.
It billed itself as a noir "thriller" and there was very little to thrill, but so much atmosphere and so much fun in the squalid rooming house and depression-era challenges of a poet scraping along by selling carpet cleaner door-to-door. I enjoyed the brief "ride" through London in the 1930's and would definitely seek out the author's other books.
If you are looking for an intricate plot, or a genuine mystery, this book is not for you. It is just a romp through some rough times with not alot of action and not much resolution in the end, but some fun reading all along the way.
Read
July 11, 2012I got about half-way through on this and gave up. Just couldn't get myself interested in either the plot or the characters.
I picked it up in the library because it was labelled 30's Noir, and I'm a fan. The style was a bit like Chandler but for me it was quite heavy-handed, but the main stumbling block was simply that I wasn't engaged with the characters.
Funnily enough, I thought the author's name was familiar, and it turns out I have (and have read) a copy of his history of 1920s London, Bright Young People. I enjoyed thi - maybe his prose is more suited to history than fiction? Another coincidence, I noticed that the author is married to another author, Rachel Hore, whose book A Place of Secrets I read recently, and thought was okay.
I picked it up in the library because it was labelled 30's Noir, and I'm a fan. The style was a bit like Chandler but for me it was quite heavy-handed, but the main stumbling block was simply that I wasn't engaged with the characters.
Funnily enough, I thought the author's name was familiar, and it turns out I have (and have read) a copy of his history of 1920s London, Bright Young People. I enjoyed thi - maybe his prose is more suited to history than fiction? Another coincidence, I noticed that the author is married to another author, Rachel Hore, whose book A Place of Secrets I read recently, and thought was okay.
August 7, 2011
An authentic portrayal of 1930s London (or so it seemed - I wasn't there) with some engaging characters, but, in terms of story, it ended up being less than the sum of its parts. I always assume when I find there is no point to a book that promised much that I'm missing something fundamental. That may be the case here. If so, can someone explain it, please?
August 26, 2011
Not so much influenced by "Love and Hunger" by Julian Maclaren Ross as lifting wholesale the characters and situations from it, with details from the books of Patrick Hamilton, Graham Greene and even Evelyn Waugh thrown in for kicks. Fun for lovers of 1930s novels and/or pastiche, but perhaps not enough plot to satisfy the casual reader.
June 25, 2010
Just an OK read for me. The expected mystery just never seems to get off the ground and the ending just left me with more questions. That being said the author does a good job of capturing that "NOIR" feeling and I found that enjoyable, so it wasn't a total loss.
February 7, 2011
I guess this is really a case of 'don't judge a book by it's cover', but what a great cover it is! I was drawn in by the 1930s, pulp fiction pastiche. But although the author had clearly researched the time & genre, the plot and characters just didn't engage me enough.
December 17, 2011
I love the period between the wars and this was for me a brilliant microcosm of lower middle class peoples lives. The story drifted on but was still engrossing , gave me the urge to explore this author`s work further.
December 16, 2011
Not a great storyline but an atmospheric look at 1930s London carried by a gentle humour.
March 5, 2013
Atmospheric depression times, with down and out characters, yes. But is it 'noir'? Maybe a sort of cozy noir?
October 1, 2013
Very evocative of its time and place, 1930s London. Very interesting use of contemporary language and vernacular. Not very gripping however as a thriller.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews