A Little London Scandal - Miranda Emmerson

You can’t fail to be reminded, to a degree, of the Profumo scandal especially after the recent TV series but that’s not to say that this story is in any way lacking in originality. It attempts to lay bare a sixties society defended by its class gulf and the prerogative of the wealthy and influential to protect themselves and their own when they venture into a seedier side of life, no matter what it takes. 

There is some historical comment on gay culture and attitudes which are fundamental to the plot and I hope is not a spoiler. Set against a theatrical backdrop in London, Anna Treadway (is this the Miss Treadway of Ms. Emmerson’s first novel, I wonder, thus admitting to the world that I haven’t read her first novel?) is the tenacious theatre dresser who won’t see a friend wronged and goes all out to seek the truth and justice.

It’s an intelligent story, substantial, written with a thorough plot, a literate narrative and some accessible characters who engage the sympathies of the reader from the off. I guess you could place it in the historical fiction genre as it’s set in the sixties but that's hard for me because I was alive then, although still a child, and I remember the whole Christine Keeler thing. But what that does also mean is that I can fully appreciate the depth of research and the attention to detail, spot on. 

The chapter headings intrigued me as chapter headings do. I alway enjoy it when an author takes the time to offer something beyond  the basic Chapter One, Chapter Two thing. At first I thought they were all going to be song titles, not necessarily relevant to the sixties but to the content of the chapters, but it's more subtle, more cryptic than that and some are simply lines from that chapter. 

The characters are diverse, and the links connecting them all is subtle and adds to the compelling thrust of the story as it evenly and solidly snowballs to its conclusion. Perhaps one might discern a social comment within its pages, Nik, the Smalltown Boy propelled into a world that was never of his choosing, Merrian the ‘understanding’ wife, torn and required to decide what doing the right thing really means. And Anna the synthesis of it all and you get the sense that were she not there everything would irrevocably fall apart. 

My thanks to Matt Clacher at 4th Estate Books for a copy of this highly enjoyable story.