A compelling, linguistically rich and highly original novel. Spanning Europe across seventy five years of this century, Magnetic North is large in scope but this backdrop neither dominates nor overwhelms the strongly characterised central figures. Instead it is created as their past, shaped by and shaping them. The prose is rich but light in touch, preserving a wry detachment appropriate to the characters of the novel (one of whom, in a brilliant touch, speaks in laconic English learnt from Damon Runyon books). The action moves from the European Riviera shortly before the outbreak of World War One to Oslo in its trading prime, via a Twenties cruise to Thirties London and war in Europe once again, followed by post-war unease and depression. The reader will enjoy the views, perhaps particularly those of Norway, a country neglected in fiction. The author's Anglo-Norwegian blood makes for multi-lingual writing which works on several levels simultaneously. Magnetic North is one of those books whose effects are visceral - the reader feels the episodes of the novel in the pit of the stomach. Higly believable and fascinating characters dictate the plot: parabloas of destruction are traced by bad characters and repeated by their descendants, while the few good characters work to overcome the cycles created. The book is heart rending, but finally highly satisfying.