Reading Angela Carter’s lovely descriptions of south London earlier this year had made me realise how little I read about contemporary London, and this really fitted the bill nicely.
Hurray for Twitter: I found out about this book, set in a shop close to where I live, through the @Se1 account. Even though it’s square-shaped. For some reason this really grinds my gears. I like books to be book-shaped, otherwise I feel like I’m reading an accordion or a copy of Meg and Mog. Also, I worry about dropping it in the bath.
Anyway, this is a lovely book, and one that proves slight isn’t a bad thing. Emily Benet works in her mother’s chandelier shop on Tower Bridge Road and chronicles their regulars, successful and dodgy haggles and her own love affair.
The half-Spanish Benet (you’ll wish you were half-Spanish too when you read about her trips to Spain and South American travels) writes beautifully, even though there’s not always lots to write about. This started life as a blog (which Benet still writes, to award-winning effect). It will be really interesting to see what her first novel will be like, because she writes with an irresistible combination of delicacy and sureness of touch that for some reason makes me think of the Cat in the story, and how it would write if it told the story of that time it looked at the King.
The story is slight – not a lot happens beyond Emily and her mum continually trying to close down their shop and failing thanks to their keen customers, and an occasional tangle in Emily’s relationship – but as a portrayal of life in London and a side to London you don’t necessarily get to see it has real charm. It works best of all as an introduction to a writer who is clearly going to do very exciting things with words and, hopefully book-shaped, books.
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