“He was, above all things, a charming man. In every century they make themselves at home.” Which, in the case of Graham Gore, a Victorian naval commander plucked from a doomed polar expedition to a near-future London, means learning how to ride a motorbike (in leathers), use Google (“what is miso paste?”) and cook pho (if not quite pronounce it).
It also means falling in love with his housemate –– a civil servant helping him adjust to his new era on behalf of the Ministry of Time, the shadowy government department that lends its name to Kaliane Bradley’s witty, thrilling and enormously ambitious debut novel. Her ambition was shared by publishers — 21 bid for the book — and the BBC, which already has an adaptation in the works.
