Sometimes, historical fiction doesn’t require crinolines or war. Two books this spring consider events of the 1970s – far away, and yet so near. Welsh author Lesley Parr sets her third coming-of-age tale, Where the River Takes Us (Bloomsbury), during an energy crisis. Everyone is shivering, the miners are on strike.
Young people have freedom, though, and recently orphaned Jason and friends swap the valley for the mountains – ostensibly on a camping trip, but actually lured by a cash prize for a photo of a mystery wild cat. While their adventure is dogged by setbacks and in-group rivalries, Jason is also worried about his older brother’s involvement in shady dealings, in an effort to keep the family together. But quick thinking, forgiveness and mercy win the day; Parr’s child protagonists are excellently drawn, their naturalistic speech dropping words such as cwtch (cuddle) into the chat.
The award-winning Jasbinder Bilan’s fourth outing, Xanthe and the Ruby Crown (Chicken House), revisits the 1972 expulsion from Uganda of people of Indian origin. In present-day Nottingham, Xanthe’s beloved nani (grandmother) is becoming alarmingly absent-minded. Xanthe is determined to help by making a museum of Nani’s past – particularly her glossed-over childhood.
Bilan’s books often have magic realism woven in, and Xanthe flashes back to her grandmother’s truncated Ugandan idyll. In the here and now, when it seems Nani is headed for a care home, Xanthe kidnaps her.
Memories are fading in a northern town, too. The Stickleback Catchers (Puffin) finds Mimi Evergreen seeing cracks in everything, linked perhaps to the crows gathering on rooftops. If her gran’s dottiness gets any worse, her grandparents will lose custody of Mimi: the cracks and the crows must be held at bay. Into this daunting scenario author Lisette Auton deftly chucks the perils of new friendship – with Titch, pronouns: they/them – plus a mystery podcaster, the Puzzler, and one scruffy crow who knows more than he’s letting on. As with Lesley Parr, Auton’s brave kid voices ring true to age and region; the representation of differently abled people here is deeply matter-of-fact.
Meanwhile, back in Nottinghamshire, there’s a year six crisis. What if your town only has two secondaries, one male and one female, and you are neither? LD Lapinski, author of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency trilogy, follows their protagonist Jamie (Orion) as they battle to solve their future. Jamie tries to reason with ineffectual adults until, almost accidentally, they and their friends take to the roof of Nottingham’s council building with a homemade non-binary flag, learning that nothing meaningful was ever won without protest – and allies.
Another demo, this time in a tree-top. Costa-winning Natasha Farrant is well known to the display tables in bookshops. In The Rescue of Ravenwood (Faber), one non-traditional family starts unravelling because of a property quarrel that threatens the home of Bea and her de facto sibling Raffy. The house is creaking, Bea’s uptight, flaky, real parents want her back – why now? – and developers are sniffing around, setting the stage for a rebellion-cum-whodunnit. Really, it’s another terrific tale of coming-into-power, where the younger generation must defy adults to defend what’s important.
A rambling house is also the setting for a stunning debut. The Swifts (Puffin) introduces a major new talent in Beth Lincoln, whose “gleeful gothic” murder mystery recalls Lemony Snicket as much as the current vogue for middle years Miss Marple-ing.
Shenanigan Smith’s family picks names at random from the dictionary – names that often fulfil their nominative determinism. Some shrug them off – like young Cousin Erf, who rechristened themself when their allotted moniker and gender didn’t apply. As the wider clan gathers for a reunion to find a treasure hidden by their ancestor, Vile, family matriarch Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude is found unconscious at the foot of the stairs.
Shenanigan investigates; the body count ticks upwards. Many Smiths are – dun-dun-dunnn! – not who they seem. This is an exquisitely written book about identity and wordplay that’s as warm, masterful and up-to-date as it is laugh-out-loud funny.
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