Nonesuch

by Francis Spufford

A spell-binding fantasy novel set in the Blitz, from the author of Golden Hill.

It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit.

What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit - into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand.

And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Science Fiction, Time Travel, World War II

480 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2026

About the author

Officially, I was a writer of non-fiction for the first half of my career, and I certainly enjoyed scraping up against the stubborn, resistant, endlessly interesting surface of the real world. I like awkwardness, things that don't fit, things that put up a struggle against being described. But when I was excited by what I was writing about, what I wanted to do with my excitement was always to tell a story. So every one of my non-fiction books borrowed techniques from the novel, and contained sections where I came close to behaving like a novelist. The chapter retelling the story of Captain Scott's last Antarctic expedition at the end of "I May Be Some Time", for example, or the thirty-page version of the gospel story in "Unapologetic". It wasn't a total surprise that in 2010 I published a book, "Red Plenty", which was a cross between fiction and documentary, or that afterwards I completed my crabwise crawl towards the novel with the honest-to-goodness entirely-made-up "Golden Hill". This was a historical novel about eighteenth century New York written like, well, an actual eighteenth century novel: hyperactive, stuffed with incident, and not very bothered about genre or good taste. It was elaborate, though. It was about exceptional events, and huge amounts of money, and good-looking people talking extravagantly in a special place. Nothing wrong with any of that: I'm an Aaron Sorkin fan and a Joss Whedon fan, keen on dialogue that whooshes around like a firework display. But those were the ingredients of romance, and there were other interesting things to tell stories about, so my next novel "Light Perpetual" in 2021 was deliberately plainer, about the lives that five London children might have had if they hadn't been killed in 1944 by a German rocket. Ordinary lives, in theory; except that there are no ordinary lives, if you look closely enough. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Then in 2023 I returned to strong forms of story, and to plotting more like "Golden Hill", with a noir crime novel called "Cahokia Jazz", set in the 1922 of a different timeline, where a metropolis full of Native Americans stood on the banks of the Mississippi. I was aiming for something like a classic black and white movie, except one you never saw, because it came from another history than our own. It won the Sidewise Award for alternate history. And now (2025/6) I've written a historical fantasy, "Nonesuch", set during the London Blitz, where as well as German bombs the protagonist Iris needs to deal with time-travelling fascists, and the remnants of Renaissance magic, preserved in the statues of the burning city. As writers of fantasy, I like C S Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, John Crowley, Tamsyn Muir, Guy Gavriel Kay, Katherine Addison. If you like them, you may like this.

Biography: I was born in 1964, the child of two historians. I'm married to the Dean of an Anglican cathedral in eastern England, I have two daughters, and I teach writing at Goldsmiths College, London.

Reviews

[charlotte, · Rating 5 out of 5]

On my blog.

Galley provided by publisher

It has been 96 days between my finishing Nonesuch and coming to review it. Ninety-six days in which it has become no clearer just how I am to write a review that can do this book justice. But, let me try.

Nonesuch was, by far and away, the best book I read in 2025. Admittedly, last year was uncommonly sparse in 5 star reads for me, but even so Nonesuch stood out. This was not a surprise: ever since I read Golden Hill a few years back, Francis Spufford has been on my list of favourite authors. I knew, from the very first page, that it would be incredible.

When I first picked up a Spufford novel, what immediately stuck out for me was the prose. A lot of prose feels like it’s striving for invisibility these days, but Spufford’s feels like each individual word is carefully selected, though in such a way that it neither feels too purple or overwrought. Instead, each little bit of description gives you a thrill, being distinctive and yet incredibly apt, observations which are memorable and also immersive.

Because Spufford’s prose is very good at transporting you to, in this case, 1940s London during the Blitz. Very rarely have I read an author who is quite so skilled at conjuring setting like Spufford can. There are certain scenes of this book that I can still viscerally recall even months later (and here I must confess to (usually!) a very poor memory for books, particularly when I’ve read several more in the meantime), from the creeping unease that follows Iris early on, to the gutpunch of an ending: I would go so far as to call this book unforgettable.

That’s also down to the central characters of this one. Iris and Geoff are both individually compelling, and even more so together. I’m not sure how much I want to say about this one, because I think this is a book that the less you know about it going in, the better, but I think it’s further proof to me that the most capital-r Romantic and compelling romances are in books which are not primarily romance novels. I have been thinking about Iris and Geoff on and off for ninety-six days since finishing this one. I have pointedly not been thinking about how long I have to wait for a resolution to their story.

All of which is, in a very un-justice-doing way, to say that if there is any 2026 release you pick up this year, it should be Nonesuch. If there’s any 2026 release you pick up in any other year, it should be Nonesuch. If you pick up only one other book in your life ever again, it should be Nonesuch. Just. Read Nonesuch.

[n · Rating 5 out of 5]

spectacular. i would like 50 more immediately. i know this is the randomest comparison of all time but: made me feel how i felt when i first finished ninth house

[Zoë · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speculative fiction that’s mostly a recount of women during the Blitz. Love the writing style and the characterisations, frustrated by the inevitable denouement and reveal

[Eleanor]

I’ve always known Spufford had an sff novelist’s heart – he’s been getting closer and closer to the genre with every novel he writes. With Nonesuch, he’s arrived. It’s his best yet, I think, an adventure through Blitz-raddled London and through time itself. Like all of my favourite secret-London novels, it relies on wonders: radio-wave angels imprisoned in the city’s statues, a sixteenth-century path to an enclave existing outside of space and time (“ye Pallace of Nonesuche”), a truly terrifying encounter with a construct that reminded me of the malevolent animated scarecrows in the Doctor Who two-parter “Human Nature”/"The Family of Blood”. The reason it’s so good, though, is the protagonist. Spufford has always been great at writing women, but here he really surpasses himself with Iris Hawkins, an ambitious secretary in a City firm. Iris wants to be rich, and she’s a social climber; her calibration of her vowels, from Watford to Chelsea, recurs regularly. She’s also got a fantastic financial mind and an endearing practicality. You know how we expect our heroines in books like this to be fascinated if they come across a wizardly cabal? Iris, refreshingly, truly couldn’t care less about the weirdos whose occult machinations have set all this in motion. Her main desires are to stay alive, to keep her lover Geoff alive, to stop a bitchy fascist from changing history so that England capitulates to the Nazis in 1939, and to find some way of balancing her fierce need for independence with the unexpected experience of falling in love. She’s a sexually active heroine without apology, but she doesn’t feel anachronistic. On the contrary, she feels unusual but not unlikely, someone who learns not to stand out but who is constantly working towards her goals, within her era’s limiting frameworks for class and sex. I suppose the combination of social-documentarian Blitz novel and metaphysical adventure story might strike other readers as incongruous, but I loved it. And while the immediate plot is resolved by the end of the novel, it ends on a literal “to be continued” that instantly creates another set of questions to be answered. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. If you’ve enjoyed Spufford’s previous work, don’t miss it. Huge thanks to Francis himself for the PDF proof; Nonesuch was published on 26 February.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the Francis Spufford of Golden Hill: erudite, adventurous, strong characters and fascinating social history all expertly served up in gorgeous prose. I savoured this novel, rooted for our protagonist Iris, and ended up with several browser tabs open as I wanted to follow-up all the historical references. I had never really thought too deeply before about what it must've been like in London during the Blitz - the sleeplessness, the ruins, the raids, the relentlessness of it all alongside the demands of ordinary life - but this book really made me see it. Not least, how dark it would have been in the blackout, and how people would have needed to get used to that (and the workarounds they developed for dealing with it). I was struck by the demographic changes too, summarisd by the higher pitch of public crowds - because female voices now outnumbered male ones. The insights into wartime finance and the stockmarket also had me gripped, and I never thought that finance could grip me! A fantastic five-stars - I will think of this book each time I'm in the City.

[Ian Mond]

You can find my review of the wildly imaginative Nonesuch in the February 2026 edition of Locus.

[jra (ahirzspace) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Hester]

I ought to try to review this properly but all I really have to say is that I liked it a lot and during a pre-publication author event I went to Francis Spufford said that the fantasy fiction he was most inspired by when writing this was THE LOCKED TOMB BY TAMSYN MUIR.

[Paul Wagenbreth · Rating 4 out of 5]

How taken you are with Francis Spufford's extravagantly imaginative “Nonesuch,” in which mortals interact with distinctly nontraditional angels in Blitz-era London, depends on how much of an appetite you have for fantastical fare and how appreciative you are of densely rich prose in the manner of, say, Dickens’ “Bleak House,” which I’m told college students today find unfathomable but which I kept being put pleasantly in mind of from my English major days as I relished Spufford’s own richly dense prose.
Of the scene the morning after the first bombs fall on central London, for instance, Spufford’s protagonist, Iris Hawkins, notes in particular “a Victorian building no different from the other red-brick four-storey affairs in a row with it, picked out from them by no principle except pure randomness, (which) had been riven from the top down, destroyed in a descending V by something from the sky. There was a little bit more left of each floor, going down. Nothing but air where the roof had been, and then a narrowing path of ripping and shattering, with paintwork and wallpaper and dangling furniture and the building’s hidden inner surfaces all exposed, turned inside out, put on violent view.”
“Like being left for dead with your knickers showing,” thinks Iris, who, like any number of her sister characters through the annals of narrative history, is looking to be taken seriously by men, something that will in fact increasingly come to pass for her in her job as a secretary at a brokerage house, where her boss, who might well be out of Dickens with his “harumphing” and with some sort of secret financial doing that he’s up to, becomes increasingly impressed with her financial acumen.
Much on display, indeed, her financial sagacity, at a dinner she attends where she’s surprised to learn that the person to whom she has been holding forth about financial matters is in fact the noted economist John Maynard Keynes, to whom, in response to a question from him about whether he’s actually encountered a believer in capitalism under the age of 50, she is quick to assent.
Hardly the social misfit or klutz that such financial astuteness might suggest, though, Iris, what with a simmering sexuality within her that has her not exactly diffident about seeking male company; indeed, the novel opens with her decked out in “a silver dress, bias cut so it flowed over curves and clung there mermaid close” as she steps out for an evening with her escort of the moment but by no means actual boyfriend, Charlie, a decided clod of whom she’s quick to inform a woman she connects with in the course of the evening that, yes, he’s as much of an idiot as the woman thinks he might be.
Simpatico enough, indeed, the two women become in the course of the evening that they’re not long in stealing away from the night spot where they’ve met, leaving Charlie deservedly in the lurch, and ending up at a more congenial place where Iris encounters Geoff, an infinitely more appealing romantic possibility, as well as a singularly off-putting woman who will come to be her nemesis.
One Lall Cunningham, her antagonist-to-be, who makes no bones of her ideological bent when she responds to another character asking her if she thinks “we should let (the Nazis) gobble up Poland, like they did Czechoslovakia," by saying, “I think that we should be grateful to the Fuhrer for taking care of Bolshevism, for all our sakes.”
A true-blue disciple of the Reich, in short, Lall, to whom, when she snaps at Iris, “what are you looking at,” Iris responds, “a fascist, apparently.”
Which, indeed, she very much proves to be by going on to employ the time-travel possibility afforded in the novel to try to kill Churchill before he becomes the indomitable force that will help vanquish Hitler and his Reich.
Revealing more would be giving away too much, other than to say that along the way toward a finale played out in the skies and rooftops above London, Iris shows herself to be a woman of considerable mettle as well as the aforementioned sexual heat, a “liquifying flame” shown to graphic effect in the scene where with enthusiastic gusto she unburdens Geoff of his virginity.
Quite the read, in short, Spufford’s literary extravaganza, even if its fantastical elements were less compelling for me than its straightforward historical ones, which seemed strong enough to me that they could well have stood on their own without the fantastical overlay. But authors must follow their own inclinations in addressing their subjects of choice, a particular challenge, it seems to me, in dealing with such well-excavated subjects as the two world wars, which have had no small number of other authors searching for new and inventive ways to deal with them – notably for me, Katherine Arden in her “The Warm Hands of Ghosts,” which also employed otherworldliness in its depiction of the trench horrors of World War I and which I was put in mind of more than once as I read Spufford.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fine piece of fiction.

It reminds me of Connie Willis, in that it's set in World War II, in the Blitz, and involves time travel, though the time travel doesn't come until the end. It also reminds me of Charles Williams, in that it's set in the period when he was writing and involves the occult (a secret society along the lines of the Golden Dawn, working from the writings of a 17th-century researcher who discovered how to bind lesser angels into statues around London). But it feels very different from both authors. It has more psychological and spiritual depth than Willis, and is more down to earth and much less self-consciously lyrical than Williams, and the main character is one that neither of them would write. It's like the best parts of both writers, plus something neither of them achieves.

The author started out as a nonfiction writer, which is probably why it feels so well researched, and yet the research isn't ground into the reader's face like some authors (including Connie Willis) sometimes do. It's used to give us a moment of observation that makes us feel like we're actually there and then, a passing detail that someone in that place and time might well have observed. It's literary in feel, but not in the trying-too-hard, overly lyrical way that some writers approach being literary. It feels literary because of the aptness of the observations, the way the characters come to understand themselves and each other, and the theme that runs throughout.

I'd summarize that theme as a confrontation and a contrast between people who believe that having power gives them the right to do whatever they want because they can, and people who believe that human freedom and dignity is a higher value. The most obvious level at which this operates is World War II itself, between the Nazis and the beleaguered British. Part of the plot hinges on the moment where Churchill almost didn't become Prime Minister and lead Britain to fight, instead of taking the easier route of folding in the face of the Nazi threat. But it's also operating at the level of the occultists and British fascists (there's considerable overlap between the two groups); real-life occultists often were seekers of power for its own sake, and if they had got it would have used it to exploit others for their own benefit, so this rings true. And at a personal level, it comes down to two women: Lall, an aristocratic British fascist who has got hold of some of the occult research and is determined to use it to impose her vision of how the world should be ordered, regardless of what anyone else thinks or what it costs them, and the protagonist, Iris, who is determined to stop her, who considers the losses Britain is suffering (and that she herself and her beloved are suffering) are a worthwhile price for freedom.

Iris is a complex character. She starts out, for me, at least, unsympathetic; she sleeps with a number of well-off idiots who she has no respect and not much liking for, mostly because she enjoys the sex, though also (very secondarily) because they take her to nice places beforehand. She picks up Geoff, a nerdy young radio engineer, at a bohemian club they both happen to be at, partly to spite Lall, who Geoff is obviously smitten by, though it's equally obvious Lall doesn't want him. But then events both supernatural and otherwise start to occur, and Iris starts to discover new dimensions in the world and in herself. Eventually, we get the story that's been hinted at throughout about the fire that changed her life, and it forms a key part of a devastating conclusion that pulls off the "surprising but inevitable" trick perfectly.

In fact, the whole thing is pulled off very nearly perfectly, with the odd exception (for such a careful researcher) of a family whose individual titles make no sense when taken together. I had a pre-publication version for review from Netgalley, and will mention this issue to the publisher, and it may well be corrected before publication. I did also wonder why, given that the characters knew how to free angels from their captivity, they didn't even discuss doing that to the statues in order to deny access to them for time-travel purposes, but that was a minor point.

This is by far one of the best books I have read this year, and given that I've read, so far, 150 books in 2025, that's an achievement. Highly recommended.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a free advance digital review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

London during World War II is where we find our heroine, Iris Hawkins. Iris, a working-class girl from Watford, works at a bank/brokerage and yearns to become a finance professional herself, but there is no possibility of that work for a woman in the UK at that time. One way Iris takes out her frustrations is to go out dancing and pick up men. She knows how to take care of herself, no problem there.

One night, just before war is declared, she unexpectedly ends up in an avant-garde club, sitting at a table with some people from the BBC. Iris and the ice-cold Lall take an immediate dislike to each other. Iris doesn’t appreciate Lall’s snobbery, but more so her fascist views. Just to spite her, Iris picks up Geoff, a BBC technician who is clearly besotted with Lall, even though she treats him like a lackey. What Iris intended as a one-night stand inexplicably leads to contact with some kind of otherworldly forces that, for want of a better word, she calls angels—even though they’re often not very angelic. When an angel tells Iris about evil time travelers who have to be stopped before they visit a fate worse than Hitler on the world, the determined Iris will fight for a better present and future, against the backdrop of the Blitz.

I wouldn’t categorize this as a time travel book. The whole time travel element isn’t even introduced until nearly halfway through the book. It’s more of a historical novel about London during the Blitz, with fantasy elements, and a feminist theme. In a recent interview in The Bookseller, author Francis Spufford says Iris’s character was inspired in part by his grandmother, and the fact that the war opened up “a strange, ambiguous time of liberty for women.” He wanted to write about what that time “would be like for somebody with her elbows out, determined to rise in a world unfriendly to a young woman [who is] ambitious and clever . . . and a bit ruthless.”

Iris’s nemesis, Lady Lalage (“Lall”) Cunningham made me think of a combination of the infamous Nazi-loving sisters Diana and Unity Mitford. Lall has Diana’s blonde beauty and selfish disregard for anyone not in her class and British Union of Fascists circle, and the hateful naïveté of Unity, who proudly declared herself an antisemite, was happy to take a German apartment stolen from a Jewish family by the Nazis, and shot herself when war was declared between Germany and Britain. She makes for an excellent foil to Iris, though I’d say her character tends to the cartoonishly evil on occasion.

Iris and Geoff are characters wholly realized. Spufford explores them as individuals, but also has them frankly address the social conventions of the time for men and women and how they might affect their hopes and ambitions. It’s done in a way that doesn’t feel at all didactic; just in character for the very outspoken Iris, who knows what she wants for herself, but is put a little off-kilter by unexpectedly falling in love.

I chose this book largely because I love novels set in wartime London, but also because I was so impressed by Spufford’s speculative historical fiction novel Cahokia Jazz. Spufford really knows how to spin a yarn. Iris’s world comes alive because of Spufford’s brilliantly evocative writing. This guy is meticulous at world building in a fictional historical context. He is also like nobody else I’ve ever read at physical descriptions, especially unusual sights and sounds. In this book, his descriptions of London’s Square Mile at night during the Blitz, at the same time a fantasy angel challenge takes place, are vivid and unforgettable.

Although this book ends with a “to be continued,” it’s not a cliffhanger. It could have ended when it did. But there will be a sequel, titled Arkady, and readers who were taken with Iris and her world will get to see her again in 2027.

4.5 stars, rounded up

[Stacy DeBroff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spufford brings his strong non-fiction background and blends it with fantasy to bring alive London before and during World War I in this historical fiction. He does his best capturing the detailed intimacy of London’s citizenry from defiance of Hitler to a city devastated by nightly bombings. He captures people’s bravery - from holding onto small pockets of joy to braving rooftops to put out incendiary flames that could destroy the building. He makes the bomb shelters come alive as everyone hides from backyard dug outs to urine-smelling underground stations to luxury under the Ritz Hotel. Rationing increasingly limits food, where relationships with vendors such as butchers and grocers meant more than cash. He also traces the rising arc of Churchill’s political career, to his ascendency to Prime Minister as holding a firm anti-Hitler position.

Layered on top of this is a fantasy world interwoven in 1930’s London, where “lower world angels” can be entrapped by practitioners of dark magic and the occult. One such group in London, calling themselves The Order, have enslaved an angel, and uses it as a monstrous avenging force when needed. The Order, having been run by men, has fallen apart and a young, reckless socialite Lall has grabbed for power. She’s the daughter of a strong pro-Nazi and wants to further the fascists agenda by going back in time to kill Churchill and enable Britain to fall in Nazi hands. To do so, she must go to the center of the magical world, known as Nonesuch, which can only be reached via a series of bridges powered by lower angels trapped in statues throughout London’s rooftop.

The story’s heroine, Iris, is a smart and ambitious bank secretary who’s deeply frustrated by the misogynist times in which men dominate in careers and women settle for background clerical positions. Iris wants to be a banker herself, follows the market carefully, reads all the leading economists and tries to figure out how to profit in a post-War market. Her financial focus and ambition bring a unique historical angle to war times.

Along the way, she seduces a young TV tech wizard, Geoff, who up until then had been pining after Lall. In revenge, Lall sends The Order’s entrapped angel in monster form to attack Iris. Iris’ interactions with the magical world grow via Geoff’s father, who’s served for years as the Order’s librarian and keeper of the mystical articles. Iris and Lall engage in an intense battle- Iris trying to prevent Lall from reaching Nonesuch.

But Spufford fumbles awkwardly in his telling of the tale from a women’s perspective. Lall describes herself early in the novel as a “bad girl”, “slut”, “Fucking a sailor would be easy”, “Fuck-it-Let’s-Do-It-Anyway Iris”, “Take it from a slut”, and “I want to get warm, at least before I get fucked.” Iris thinks to herself that she relied “on the bad girl’s advantage of being taken to dinner a lot” and of “the discoveries of a woman’s power if she was shameless.” Iris repeatedly describes her sexuality in the most male derogatory terms. She muses, “Borrowing the men’s language for desire, you knew that the right worlds that turned you into meat were nearby.” No smart, ambitious woman of her times would be so self-sabotaging. The repeated instance of this happening deeply detracts from the novel’s strong historical and fantasy elements.

The book ends with a cliff-hanger smack dab in the middle of the action. Here’s hoping that Iris will be back to the wonders of Nonesuch and the rise of her financial career without the damaging internal dialog.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

[S.J. Higbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book with a slightly wistful hope that I might get a flavour of Connie Willis’s excellent Oxford Time Travel adventures as the blurb had a flavour of it…

This is a wonderful, gripping read with the depth and sophistication of a literary read and the tension and pace of a well-told genre thriller. Iris is an ambitious young woman, who wants to become wealthy in her own right – as opposed to marrying money – despite the twin obstacles of gender and class. And given that sexism and classism still pose real impediments in 2026 for aspiring youngsters wishing to make their way in Britain, the barriers Iris face are formidable. I love that Spufford doesn’t tell us, so much as show Iris’s efforts to overcome these difficulties. She is mocked several times for her unnaturally posh accent, acquired by an elocution teacher to smooth out her Watford vowels and despite showing indepth knowledge of the stock market, her Manager is reluctant to promote her.

She also enjoys sex, which as an unmarried woman in a time when having a baby out of wedlock brought social ruin, is somewhat risky behaviour. That said, I didn’t roll my eyes at this detail because it made sense with the rest of Iris’s character, especially as she is estranged from most of her family for reasons that become clear during the story. I loved her intelligence, hyper-awareness of the people around her and her feisty nature. I also loved the slightly messy nature of her unfolding relationship with Geoff set against the strains imposed by the war – it’s beautifully done.

So I really cared about Iris and very much hoped that everything would pan out for her. What I didn’t expect was a sudden, catastrophic plot twist right at the end of the book, which leaves everything on a major cliff-hanger and me more than a bit desperate to know what happens next. Particularly as there’s no indication that a sequel is planned – frankly, I’m fervently hoping that book is written and in the final stages of editing, but making me wait for more than a handful of months must be counted as cruel and unusual punishment.

The other major character I haven’t yet discussed is London. The setting of the unfolding drama of both the war and Iris’s increasing awareness of uncanny influences being harnessed for nefarious reasons is vividly depicted. Spufford’s evident love for the city of London and awareness of its history spills from the pages in wonderful detail as the increasing hardship for people living there is charted. All in all, this was a memorable and wonderful read that lifted me out of my everyday life and took me to somewhere completely different. And yes – I’m delighted to say that I got my Connie Willis vibes, thank you very much. And that doesn’t happen very often, because writers of that quality are rare. Very highly recommended. While I obtained an arc of Nonesuch from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. It's out at the start of March.

Firstly: be aware that this is the first of a duology. Did I know this going in? No. Did I think it would have an amazing conclusion? Yes. Did it have a great conclusion? Yes. Did I then turn the page to discover "To be concluded"? What do you think.

So it's the eve of World War 2, as the novel opens. Iris works in London, for a stockbroker; what she really wants is to be the stockbroker, but that's not happening for a woman in England in 1939. She's also a self-identified 'bad girl': she has relationships with men that are largely transactional - not strictly in the sex-work sense, but in the sense that she's definitely looking to get something out of it. Mostly she's looking to move up in the world, away from her suburban roots (it is England in 1939).

Then she meets Geoff, and then a weird Watcher follows her home, and then World War 2 starts, and then the Blitz begins. It's a lot.

This is most definitely a fantasy novel. There are "angelic beings" - for want of a better term (they're definitely not angelic in the sense of perfectly good, because I'm pretty sure that would rule out being sarcastic); there's a shadowy occult society, and magic is real if hard to access, and eventually there is Nonesuch - a place where, if you can access it, you might change history.

And yet. The fantastical elements are a surprisingly small part of the story. An enormous amount of the book is actually about surviving in London in 1939 and 1940. Everyone surviving - the descriptions of bomb shelters, and the lack of supplies, and general atmosphere of fear are exquisitely drawn. And Iris surviving - how she has lived up til now (perfectly well, if sometimes precarious), how that changes when she meets Geoff (much more complicated), various real and important moral quandaries. It's not that the fantastical elements were extraneous - I was always itching to go back to them - but the mundane sections didn't bore or worry me, or make me impatient. They're necessary and they're amazing.

I have never read anything by Spufford, and I was actually quite surprised to discover he's a he. Iris is drawn so convincingly, and sympathetically, with determination and ambition and unwelcome vulnerability; she's so angry when she's vulnerable but never made to seem lesser to the reader when she is - I just assumed it was a woman writing her. So that was a shock, but takes nothing away from Iris. She's vital and alive, she makes bad decisions and sometimes she makes them right, she's brave and she has to make real decisions about morality, and living with her brain and ambition in 1939 must have truly sucked.

If I could hold my breath until the sequel arrives I would consider it, but that would be stupid. I'm so excited that I am really quite nervous to see where it goes.

[Kit Whitfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enormous treat of a book!

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Nonesuch, and I really can't say when I last enjoyed a novel so much. It feels at once huge and intimate, a gripping story that ranges from the squalid to the divine, with a human tale at the heart of it that I was rooting for passionately.

The premise is so clever I'm actually a bit hesitant to spoil it because seeing it unfurl is part of the joy. Let's say this: it's the end of the 1930s in London. Iris is a go-getting girl from Watford, out for a good time and with secret ambitions to take the world by storm - not an easy path to find for someone much smarter than someone of her class and sex is supposed to be. When she strays off her usual track one evening, she thinks she's just going to have a bit of fun with a more bohemian scene than she usually hangs around with. Then a good time with a nicer man than she usually hooks up with. Then . . . there's something outside his house. Something that moves wrong. Something that isn't safe. Something that isn't of this endangered world at all.

The story is gripping, an old-fashioned good read in the very best sense. The prose is full of sentences I want to eat whole. A building described a 'One of those art nouveau-ish blocks whose stonework was smoothed into curves, as if all the component parts had been partially sucked like gobstoppers before assembly.' A Christmas scene: 'The waters of the Thames were iron-dark, welling and wrinkling as the tide turned, and they ate each snowflake that fell in them as if it had never been.' The heroine experiencing 'the very distinctive feeling of unfairness that came of saying a true thing for an underhand reason.' There's a vividness and a dry wit to how the story is told that enlivens every page.

If you have an interest in history, occultism or the traditions of fantasy, it's also a marvellous game. Spufford wears his knowledge lightly, but plays with the past with a depth and subtlety that gives the book a real intelligence and humanity that keeps on being rewarding time and time again, even after you think you've gotten to grips with his subject and didn't expect another surprise.

Add to all this a genuinely moving romance at the heart of it and ... well, you know those books you find yourself thinking about in between reading, wondering, 'What's going to happen next? What are the characters up to? How's it all going to work out?' This is one of those books. It really stays in your mind, and I can guess now it's going to be a delectable reread.

Really, I can't recommend this enough; it's the best time I've had with a book in ages.

[Daphne Sharpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three little words. That’s all it takes to ruin a day, turn blue skies grey and make the reader want to scream and shout at those three little words.
TO BE CONTINUED.
In my defence, it was never mentioned in the blurb, that this book was not the complete story, which is a shame. However, I found this to be a wonderfully creative read, skilfully written and very informative about aspects of World War 2, that I had never considered, the financial markets and stocks and bonds with all the implications for how to fund a war, when it is not clear if there will be a war, or how long it will last.
There are two very likeable main characters, Iris is a strong willed, independent and sexually adventurous worker in a brokers office, and Geoff, her very innocent and sexually naive boyfriend. There is also a sprinkle of supernatural magic in the form of Raphael, a rather bossy Angel.
Angels have been trapped in statues that are scattered around the City of London. They need to be freed, this involves some rather hair raising manoeuvres high above the rooflines whilst the Blitz is in full swing.
Iris is a volunteer fire watcher, but bombs dropping everywhere still pose a threat to her, plus a female assassin who wants to find a secret portal that will take her back in time to assassinate Winston Churchill to stop the war. Slipping and sliding across roofs whist incendiaries are dropping makes for quite a scary read at times, and if you suffer from vertigo, the stomach muscles may start to churn at this point.
Time travel means that Iris will have the ability to make amends for a past mistake.
Nonesuch is a magical place that will only reveal itself after a series of clues are solved, when various bridges and traps have to be negotiated in order to help Raphael fulfil his tasks.
I found this to be a very gripping and emotional read. Just how does the author manage to convey what sexual desires and feelings are really like for females? Really well expressed in this aspect. I did enjoy this story very much, but I still remain disappointed that the conclusion will probably be a few months down the line, before all these loose ends are successfully resolved.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful read by Francis Spufford and I’m saying that as someone who normally wouldn’t consider picking up a fantasy novel! ‘Nonesuch’ is about so much more than a fully devised ‘other world’. Spufford takes his reader to the outset of WW2 in London, where protagonist, Iris Hawkins, who has a lowly job in the City, has a close brush with fascist fanaticism and learns that only her actions can stop Nazi invasion.

Whilst this sounds preposterous, Spufford makes his world real through entirely credible characters. Iris is a wonderful creation; a working class woman who mostly uses men as they use her. Clever, unashamedly aspirational and yet vulnerable, we have her back throughout the novel, not least when she comes across the aristocratic Lalage, in every way her bête noir. Even when describing something as unlikely as a roof top showdown between the two women, Spufford always roots his characters’ behaviour in reality so that the fantasy element is lightly worn. After Lalage tells Iris that, if she sees her again, she will kill her, we are told that, ‘She ducked her head, fair hair dipping. ‘Thank you,’ she said formally. Thenk you. Some kind of script of politeness had kicked in. The kind of code that might linger in a grand family even when they all started wearing black shirts. ‘Please don’t follow me or pax will be over.’’

As the ending signifies, this is a clearly a story ‘to be continued’ and there are plenty of unanswered questions and elements of underdeveloped plot that will have me rushing to get my hands on the next instalment. The author’s depiction of a ‘warts and all’ wartime London, including financial systems in play and political expediencies at work, alongside a quietly developing, moving love story works incredibly well. And, the author being Spufford, of course the whole novel is beautifully written. Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

[aemynadira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford is a stunning, genre-bending adventure that starts in the summer of 1939. Iris Hawkins, a whip-smart & restless financial secretary, meets Geoff, a genius engineer pioneering the strange new world of television. What begins as a spontaneous connection quickly spirals into something far bigger & weirder, pulling Iris into a hidden war where time itself is malleable & ancient magic flickers in the static of early TV screens. As the very real bombs of the Blitz begin to fall on London, Iris must navigate a shadowy conflict across time & space to stop a psychopath from rewriting history, a fight that rests unexpectedly on her shoulders.

I have to say, I loved every bit of this. Spufford masterfully braids together alternate history, speculative fiction, & a heartfelt, pulse-quickening romance, all sprinkled with his signature subtle wit. The historical setting doesn't just provide backdrop. It breathes & bleeds, making the fantastical elements feel thrillingly possible. And at the stormy center of it all is Iris Hawkins, who instantly became a character I'd run through a time rift for. She's raw, flawed, & wildly elegant in a way that feels completely her own. She knows her own sharp edges & owns them completely, which only makes her fierce intelligence & defiant drive more compelling. To follow her is to be in awe of her, & I rooted for her with my whole heart.

In a journey of great reads, Nonesuch utterly captivated me. It's the kind of book that settles into your bones. The scenes of Iris sprinting over blacked-out rooftops, the tender, charged moments between her & Geoff, & the sheer, awe-inspiring originality of the plot have all stayed vividly with me. Spufford writes with a casual brilliance that makes each page a pleasure, crafting a story that's as emotionally resonant as it's wildly imaginative. This isn't just a book you read, it's one you experience & then immediately want to press into the hands of everyone you know. Simply put, Nonesuch is unforgettable.

Thanks to Times Reads for the ARC!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was primed to round this up to 4 stars, but I am enormously frustrated with the "to be continued" ending. There were things I enjoyed about this but honestly....not enough for a sequel. And yet, I'm invested enough that I might need to read a second book anyway, just to see things resolved.

The good: I like the author's mix of historical fiction and slightly supernatural; the things I dislike about fantasy (world building, tiresome exposition about rules of how the world works, etc) are mostly unnecessary, and this book did a good job of keeping the magical explanations concise. I quite enjoyed the setting and descriptions of the blitz, the countryside escapes, office life in London, and so on. The book mostly grants that readers have some familiarity and isn't heavy-handed. Also, I think Iris is mostly an interesting and likable character.

The...less good: I got increasingly turned off by two things, the word count given to the Iris/Geoff relationship and the book's framing of women generally. First, at points this almost reads like a romance (which is fine, but not what I'm here for). The degree to which Iris's internal voice circles the drain around Geoff and feelings and blah blah blah is exhausting - almost as if the whole book fails the Bechdel Test. Iris's much more interesting and empowering drive around knowledge, wealth, and professional achievement is almost an afterthought by comparison. Second, to be reductive, the main plot conflict ultimately boils down to a slut v. bitch battle where both get punished in different ways and even the thin framing of Iris's sexuality as strength or (mal)adaptation or New Woman independence is still just....sluttery. And Lall: just no depth at all. She's just a bitch. Now, I don't know where book two is going to go with this dynamic....but it better have some reframing of the whole idea of women or I'm going to be disgruntled.

Tldr, I liked it, until I didn't. But I'll probably still read the follow up. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

In London in the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of war, we meet Iris Hawkins. Iris is ambitious, capable and independent. She works in the world of City finance, in a supporting role as expected of women at the time, but hoping for more. A chance encounter one night has Iris meeting Geoff Hale, a technician working at the BBC’s emerging television unit. Iris also meets Lady Lalage (Lall) Cunningham.
Iris’s world is about to change. On her way home from what she intended to be a one-night stand with Geoff; Iris is followed by a strange creature. What is it, and what does it want? Iris learns about the power contained within certain statues, about dangerous bridges to enable travel to Nonesuch, a place which, if you can enter it, might allow you to change history. Unfortunately, Lall also knows about this, and she is a fanatical fascist for whom an English capitulation to the Nazis is desired.

Mr Spufford has written a terrific blend of historical fiction and fantasy. In the present, Iris must survive the war: the lack of food, the need to shelter from the bombs. She also must try to map her way to Nonesuch, made much more difficult as the Blitz alters (or destroys) London’s architecture. And, having fallen in love with Geoff, Iris is concerned for him and looking out for his father. Meanwhile, Lall has her own plans.
There is much more to the story than this. Iris quickly becomes a new favourite fictional character (I loved her interaction with John Maynard Keynes and, generally, her ingenuity in matters financial). She is heroic and flawed. As is Geoff.

I do not want to ruin the story for a first-time reader. But I will add that Mr Spufford is working on a sequel entitled ‘Arcady’, expected in 2027.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Faber for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Kate Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this amusing, weird alternate reality novel and I don't know when I have been so entertained. Well, I do. I am often entertained but rarely in such a whizz-bang manner. The Blitz, the occult and a London that contains mysteries and marvels. Pure joy!

Novels that lean so heavily on the events of WWII, the Blitz, the gumption and endless stoicism, heroism, undefeated spirit of the British (in this case) might cause the odd rolled eyeball from me (given the absolute deluge of mediocre sensationalist novels dedicated to WWII, La Résistance, and love in times of war) and in any other hands this would have read as a mangled triumphalist hark back to the Empire in all its (tarnished) glory. Spufford, however, delights in writing the jolly decent chaps and all that jazz alongside a deeply funny novel about a young woman, a “good time” girl who is ambitious but has morals as well as being easy on the eye and undeniably clever. Wasted in a clerical job at her stockbroker’s, Iris can argue Keynesian economics with the best of them (the men), and has Ideas about how her company could ride out the financial uncertainty at the onset of war. She’s great fun and her petty seduction of Geoff (not a spoiler) to piss off aspiring Fascist Lall, blossoms into a lovely, messy, uncertain love affair that might well last.

Our brainy but beautiful Iris takes stock of a collapsing world, survives the gaze of terrible angels, the deadly attention of a malign secret order, discovers an assassination plot due to occur in another version of London—a time warp version —and her adventures multiply. Spufford takes the middle-class ‘female’, deprived of the opportunity to use her brain, visible/desirable only in terms of her looks, defined by duty and knowing her place, and rewrites her, or rewrites her opportunities, with affection and admiration. Beyond the tongue in cheek almost cheesiness of how dashed brave she is, you feel Spufford really believes in the Iris and all the Delias and Mrs Sinclairs of this world. Who else could keep it all going?

I read Nonesuch on two levels. It is deeply political as well as entertaining. It stands as a serious warning about the rise of ideologies, fascist, right-wing ideologies and the attempts to normalise elements of the behaviour and policies we see enacted by many governments around the world. Spufford seems to point to that very same indefatigable spirit of resistance that saw Londoners through the Blitz as a model for our own resistance going forward.

Nonesuch is also a romp. It is fruity, blowsy, intellectually and emotionally engaging, tender, hair-raising, hilarious and (unexpectedly) expanded my vocabulary. Bad news—we have to wait for the sequel. How very dare he!

[Jessica Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book of 2026 and wow, the bar has been set high. I have loved every fictional work Francis Spufford has written, especially as each one is so different I have no idea what to expect except knowing I am guaranteed beautiful writing, twisting plots, moments of high emotion with deft touches of humour and characters who jump off the page they are so three dimensional.
Set in the Blitz Nonesuch blends literary, magic, horror and historical fiction seamlessly, evoking the weary horror of the Blitz in all its exhausting, dust-covered, terrifying detail. I have read many books set in London during this time and I don't think any of them have brought the day to day slog of life under bombing so vividly to life.
Iris is clever, ambitious, confident, aware of and in charge of her sexuality and has a keen financial brain- none of which is considered appropriate for a nice surburban girl in 1939. She is also fiercely practical so when she becomes aware of something other, something supernatural, magical and downright terrifying, it's a lot to take in. But she is also curious and despite herself finds herself drawn into the world of sinister secret scieties with facist tendancies and racing against time to stop them changing the course of history. Iris is a wonderful protagonist, not always likeable even to herself, complex and contradictory and self-aware - it's disappointingly rare for men to write multi-layered women well, especially women who are sexually confident, but Spufford produces a master class in how to do so.
This is a fabulous book. Read it. Highly recommended.

[Linda Galella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speculative Historical Fiction and Fantasy - there’s a combination that’s a first for me!

Did I like it? I’m not sure. It wasn’t bad but it did require a fair amount of suspending belief due to characters speaking anachronistically. Sigh. Well, there’s also the fantasy angle which borders on occult. For sure I did NOT get Narnia vibes. Those stories have strong threads of positivity and spirituality that are lacking here.

The world building took forever; painfully slow. Getting there does have moments of brilliance as author, Francis Spufford delivers some artistic descriptive prose. After reading this book, I don’t ever want to go to London in the winter!

Too much time was spent on the relationship angst in the head of FMC, Iris. She is a much better character when pursuing her career objectives or fighting otherworldly battles. I found the relationship between her and Geoff aggravating.

World War II buffs will enjoy the experience of viewing the lives of regular folks living thru the Blitz. These scenes are very personal and engaging, easily my favorite aspect of the story.

This is a long book and it moves slowly until the last 20% or so. Iris begins the fight to save history in earnest. Angels, demons, guardians, secret orders, and all manner of things going bump in the night while war rages around.

By far, the biggest frustration is that after almost 500 pages there is a giant cliffhanger - no resolution, no joke📚

I received a copy for review purposes. All opinions are honest and mine alone.
Read and Reviewed from an ARC provided by Publisher’s Weekly with thanks to the publisher and author

[Jamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am clearly an outlier here, judging by the rapturous reviews. I was also an outlier on Light Perpetual, so perhaps Francis Spufford simply isn’t an author for me.

Nonesuch is set during the Blitz in south London and follows a small group of characters whose lives intersect under bombardment — ordinary people trying to carry on amid rubble, fear and rationing. Into this very grounded, vividly rendered wartime setting Spufford introduces angels and demons, engaged in a metaphysical struggle that overlays the human one. The novel moves between the practical business of survival — wardens, shelters, damaged houses — and the unseen supernatural conflict shaping events.

The description of the Blitz is superb. The sense of place, the smoke and dust, the brittle stoicism, the strange normality of catastrophe — all of that feels carefully observed and convincing. Spufford can paint a street, a sky, a shattered building with real authority. Those sections are immersive and often deeply affecting.

Where it lost me was with the angels and demons. I understand what he was doing — raising the moral and spiritual stakes, suggesting that history is more than random destruction — but I found those passages overlong and heavy. The metaphysical debates felt laboured, and the novel began to sprawl. Just as I was hoping for resolution, we’re left on something of a cliff hanger, which, after the length and density of what precedes it, felt more wearying than intriguing.

Given how much others have loved it, I suspect this is very much a case of an issue in the part of the reader….which is so frustrating.

[Book Club Review podcast (Kate) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Francis Spufford checks a lot of boxes for me. I love good writing, I love characters I can care about, and stories that take me on a journey. I also love how inventive he is as a writer – Golden Hill, then Light Perpetual, completely different, then Cahokia Jazz, completely different again. When I heard his latest novel was going to be set in London during the Blitz and had a supernatural element, and knowing he has a deep appreciation of things like the C.S. Lewis Narnia books, my expectations were alight, and I was so happy Nonesuch did not disappoint. There are elements here that fans of his other books will recognize. The vivid characters and dialogue made me think of Golden Hill, the sense of place took me back to the London of Light Perpetual – London is so beautifully evoked here, it is pretty much a character in itself – and then that sense of the ineffable, of things that go beyond the earthly dimension, of angels trapped within stone, of rivers of time. The main character, Iris Hawkins, is a brilliant heroine, bright, undaunted, brave. I loved the detail that she was inspired by Spufford's grandmother Nancy, 'not entirely a good girl' as he says in the dedication. And somehow managing to combine the terrors of London during the Blitz with this clever supernatural mystery without trivialising the war in any way, but rather honouring the generation of people who lived through it – it all took my breath away. So looking forward to the book coming out to find out what other people think.

[Kate Hyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

I seem to be in the minority here, but this one left me a bit disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed he author's previous fiction books, but this one has me reviewing my take on them.
The historical research is excellent as usual - an absolute must - but it is left down by both the character-building and the intertwining of fantasy and reality.
The prose throughout is excellent too but, despite some brilliant historical details in drawing their lives, I failed to believe in either Iris, Geoff or Lall. Possibly the author's background in non-fiction doesn't help, but more likely that his previous books were set further back in history, making it easier to ascribe motives and emotions more apposite to the present day.
The mingling of reality and fantasy didn't work too well for me either - it came across as neither one thing nor the other, in the end. Presumably if fantastic elements were to intrude on one's life, it would indeed give an hallucinogenic feeling, sloughed off like a bad dream - albeit, in this case, exacerbated by the surreal nature of your city being bombed whilst daily life carries on. But this is a novel, and the imperative of dramatic flow suggests a more forced schedule than we get.
Overall, nicely written, good prose and research, but the characters did not come alive, and the fantasy elements were lacking.
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nonesuch is a richly layered historical fantasy that captures the charged atmosphere of 1939 London with lyrical precision and speculative flair. Francis Spufford, known for his genre-defying storytelling, returns with a tale that bends time and reality, yet remains deeply anchored in human emotion.

At its heart is Iris Hawkins, a young woman navigating the rigid world of City finance, whose chance encounter with Geoff—a BBC technician—spirals into an adventure that’s as metaphysical as it is political. Spufford conjures a London teetering on the edge of war, where spirits can be summoned and history itself is malleable. The stakes are high: a fascist fanatic travels through time with a gun in hand, and only Iris can stop her.

The prose is elegant, the pacing deliberate, and the emotional resonance quietly powerful. Spufford’s vision of burning rooftops and twisted timelines is cinematic, yet intimate. Fans of Golden Hill will find familiar ingenuity here, but Nonesuch ventures further—into the uncanny, the urgent, and the deeply personal.

A triumph of literary imagination, Nonesuch is ideal for readers who crave historical fiction with speculative depth and emotional clarity.

My thanks to Francis Spufford, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

[Emilie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like I read a different book than everyone else. The premise sounds great, and I wanted to love it. But the promised appeal of "Narnia for grown-ups" was nowhere in sight. After the initial intrigue of the prologue, you have to get more than halfway through the book before the magical elements even become apparent, and even then there's not a lot of explanation of what they mean. I needed some world-building to understand what was happening, and by the time I got any, the book had already lost me. Geoff has the appeal of a wet blanket, and if I had to be reminded one more time that Iris is a lady of questionable virtue, or that men were staring at her breasts, I was going to throw my Kindle at the wall. WE GET IT. LET IT GO.

I love a good descriptive passage, but this book is so over the top it probably could have been half as long and not missed a thing. And please stop with the modern sexual slang and curse words in the mouths of 1930s and '40s characters. So out of place and weird.

Everyone else seems to have loved this book, so obviously the problem is me. But the ending is clearly a set-up for a sequel, and I won't be reading it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

[Franki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of this book for review purposes from NetGalley.

If, like me, you enjoyed Neil Gaiman but can't bring yourself to support him anymore, I'd really recommend this one.

I found the fantasy plot really intriguing, although somewhat confusing (I never really fully understood what was going on with the statues), and it was definitely a really original concept. The modern historical setting (the onset of WWII in London) made for a really nice contrast to the fantastical elements.

The characters were all really well-developed, and the relationship between Iris and Geoff was adorably awkward, and felt really genuine. Geoff's dad was probably my favourite character, and the descriptions of his house gave me such vivid mental images. I also (oddly) liked Lall, even though she is the villain of the piece. Her motivations were misguided but understandable, and Spufford has done a really good job of showing her sympathetic side without removing the villainy.

The ending was unexpected, answered some of the questions that had been bugging me throughout, and if you're a sentimental type will probably devastate you (I'm not, and even I felt a bit like I'd been hit by an emotional truck!).

[Anne O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Francis Spufford is among the authors whose work I know I will love; I trust him, whether writing non-fiction such as Red Plenty or the novels Golden Hill and Light Perpetual. My reading preference is for realism over fantasy, exceptions including Philip Pullman and Bridget Collins. The quest in Nonesuch may involve a supernatural element but the emotion is all real.
I was swept into Spufford’s London - it’s as good a depiction of the city at war as any I’ve read: the daily grind of disrupted sleep and insufficient food and heating. He really captures the ‘collapse of ordinariness’, the uncertainties (and opportunities) of living through war.
Iris is a great central character. Because Spufford draws her in such a believable and well-detailed 1939, the only incredulity on encountering the terrifying thing she sees from the Hampstead cottage is hers. Ever the sceptic, she puts it down to a bad dream. Until it returns...
I heartily recommend Nonesuch if you fancy, as Spufford puts it, a ‘daft mixture … of wartime finance, early TV, archangels, Renaissance magic and falling bombs’. Top notch.
Thanks to Faber and Faber for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.