Jeffrey’s Reviews > Art and Artifice: A Novella > Status Update

A delight! This bright & breezy & very entertaining a comedy of manners, Owen Hebbett’s first novel is, I hope, the first of many. Beautifully paced, quietly hilarious with a wonderful cast of characters (I especially enjoyed Kandyss!). It feels a little like being in a PG Wodehouse novel but with more nuance than slapstick! Our narrative, Lancaster, butler to the Peterkins (I wondered if that was a nod to one of my favourite children’s books, The Peterson Papers by Lucretia Peabody Hale) has the stateliness of Stevens on Remains of the Day, the savvy of Downtown’s Carson and a self-awareness that is Hebbett’s own delightful addition