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The plot. The characters. Johnny Kavanagh. Period.

It’s a powerful autobiography about love and identity set just before the First World War in a Nottinghamshire pit village. The author’s deep, powerful and often destructive maternal bond both clashes and amplifies his relationship with two women. It also explored concepts of political class, industrialisation, social norms and discovery of self. I first read/discovered this through English Lit O Level at my grammar school in Plymouth.

This is all I love in a epic fantasy with its worldbuilding and slow burn plot. The characters are fantastic you feel for there struggles and there wins.

I loved The Satsuma Complex because it’s funny, odd and genuinely warm-hearted. Bob Mortimer creates eccentric characters who still feel completely real, and the book balances mystery and humour brilliantly. It’s quirky without trying too hard, and it has a really comforting charm.

Loved this book.

Wonderful depiction of interwar boarding house culture and interpersonal relationships in a kind of British long-term living that is now a thing of the past.

Wonderful depiction of interwar boarding house culture and interpersonal relationships in a kind of British long-term living that is now a thing of the past.