50s-style kettle in Cream, $269, from Smeg. My Mugs mug in Limestone,
THE MINISTRY OF TIME
Kaliane Bradley, Sceptre, $32.99
Time travel – what nonsense. It can never happen. But Einstein stated that all time is simultaneous, and Bradley pitches her novel not as science fiction but for real. A hush-hush government group ‘expatrifies’ individuals from the past and rehabilitates them in a secret location in post-Brexit Britain.
Pulled in from 1847, Commander Graham Gore (think young George Clooney with extra brainpower) loves Spotify, but sees the snares that technology brings us. Each expat has a minder, known as a ‘bridge’. Witty and wonderful, the narrator, Gore’s bridge, is nameless. The comedy comes from bureaucrats who stifle valuable insights at every turn – or are they something more sinister?
All but buried in the hurly-burly is an exquisite