Historical fiction by author Lloyd Shepherd…

Last month I wrote about a brilliant project two men were undertaking to play out in real life their favourite book. The Riddle of the Sands Adventure Club is the brainchild of Tim Wright and Lloyd Shepherd and has given this blogger a great deal of pleasure thus far. What I love about stumbling across new subjects such as this are the potential spin-offs one can discover and these guys have presented plenty of them.

Looking into their previous work I found that Lloyd had written three books as well as embarking on a successful attempt to visit twenty two countries in only seventeen days and all of it by train. You can read about his brilliant adventure on his website The Disorient Express.

Anyway, back to the books and reading the synopsis of all three I knew the subject matter would be interesting and today they all arrived in the post. The reviews speak for themselves; “A fantastical spin on the old tale of terror” wrote the Financial Times, the author Joanne Harris described the second book as “Very stylish, very ingenious and very well written” and The Guardian declared “Georgian London is vividly brought to life…A gutsy, involving yarn”

So there you go! I shall read them in order beginning with The English Monster aka The Melancholy Transactions of William Ablass. It begins with a potential hanging in 1585 and within the space of the first chapter it is clear that the author has done his research. This already smacks of London life and landscape ‘as was’ rather than dreamt up and anyone who follows The Riddle of the Sands Adventure Club will know Tim and himself take their research seriously. What I know about the Thames river and the streets of London can be written on the back of a cigarette packet but Lloyd gives a real sense of the lay of the land and I am really looking forward to reading more.

I shall keep you posted!

The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd. Published by Simon & Schuster UK ISBN: 978-0-85720-537-7

The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd. Published by Simon & Schuster UK ISBN: 978-1-47110-036-9

Savage Magic by Lloyd Shepherd. Published by Simon & Shuster UK. ISBN: 978-1-4711-3608-5