Margaret Finch has joined the Mass Observation Project, a team of observers and volunteer writers that studied the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain. The setting is Blackpool, 1938 – the seaside resort at its height of popularity with working-class people – filled with sideshows, waxworks and other amusements and the author brilliantly captures Blackpool’s tawdry allure.
One of the acts is a real historical figure, the disgraced and defrocked Rector of Stiffkey, Harold Davidson, who makes a spectacle of himself to fund an appeal against his dismissal. But is he guilty or innocent? Socially-awkward Margaret makes it her mission to find out.
Readers will grow to love the fascinating but flawed characters – Margaret lacking in confidence but at times astutely observant, her gruff landlady Maude and eccentric boss James.
Ignore what I thought was an incongruous cover, the slightly misleading blurb and ‘where is this going’ beginning and to avoid spoilers definitely do not Google the bizarre true-life story of the Rector of Stiffkey, like I did. If you liked Lessons in Chemistry then give this quirky and original novel a try. It’s a great story, one of those ‘historical fact being stranger than fiction’ tales.
Catherine Clarke 