This short book describes the adventures and romance of a thirty year old novelist who has been living as an invalid since a riding accident when she was fifteen, and a young sailor, ably assisted by the woman's aunt who provides comic relief. Unlike most of Swann's output that I have read, the setting for this is not the ancient world with a Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Cretan mythology. Instead, this is supposedly eighteenth century England, except that it is either extremely alternative or full of anachronisms which brought me up short several times.

In his afterword, the author says that he did take liberties with the date of when a hydrogen powered balloon would have flown - I certainly found this odd when reading the story, as the first such aerial transport was accomplished with hot air balloons - and that he used Marjorie Quennell's history of England for a reference. However, the inclusion of farthingales as women's dresses is very jarring if you have knowledge of historical dress - no wealthy eighteenth century woman would have been seen dead in one, as they went out of fashion in the mid seventeenth century. And the inclusion of a witch burning scene was the major thing that derailed the story for me, as witches were never burned in England, hanging was the penalty, and although some remote country districts did occasionally persist with the 'swimming' trial of suspected witches, the last execution in England was in 1682. In fact, the 1735 Act established prosecution for anyone claiming to be a witch on the grounds that this was a fraud, so far had belief in witchcraft died out with the onset of the scientific explorations that formed part of the 'Englightenment'. So I found that aspect completely unconvincing.

However, I realised as I read on that the book has to be taken very much as an alternative history given that witchcraft is real in the story, along with a variety of weird supernatual creatures who make up the inhabitants of the Not-World, a name given to the dark wood close to the city of Bristol. As such it is a light hearted read and the two main characters are likeable and have a good line in banter as they gradually become close over the course of the story despite their disparate social classes. ( )

This was a book I had some hesitation going into. I recently started liking fantasy- but nothing quite so 'fantasy', if that makes any sense! I ended up liking this story- though I feel like 'Auntie' got made fun of just a bit too much. But it was funny. It was also very full of adventure, oddities and a bit of romance. If you're a big fantasy fan, I'd recommend it.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, publisher or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )