A comedy of manners: short stories set around USA
A tantalising time-slip novel set in LONDON
7th March 2025
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, a tantalising time-slip novel set in London.
Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2025 – Fiction With A Sense of Place
There is a very interesting concept at the heart of the novel. Characters have been plucked from the past to reintegrate into the present, from the 17th/18th and 20th Centuries and at the heart of the story is Graham Gore, who was alive two centuries ago.
He was on a mission to find the North West Passage, a (then) hypothetical route through the North American Arctic, an anticipated opening for trade between the UK and the various countries in Asia. The two ships on the expedition were last seen in Baffin Bay, waiting for a clement passage. Gore was First Lieutenant aboard the Erebus and generally there is little known of his life. He therefore makes a good character to feature in this novel. He is known as ‘1847’, the year he was last noted on this Earth.
The “Bridge” appointed to escort Gore through the near future resembles the author herself but remains nameless throughout the narrative. She is there to ease him into a life that is a world away from what he knows. The challenges he faces are funny and poignant, his responses are both predictable and surprising, entertaining and throught-provoking.
The two spend a lot of time together and their early attempts at closeness are governed by the societal mores, separated by 200 years. There is plenty of opportunity for mismatches and dark humour.
The pressing question throughout is the reason for setting up the whole enterprise of transporting people through time to a near future that is not altogether dissimilar to present day. The Ministry of course oversees the whole project and just perhaps there are machiavellian forces at work. A killing disrupts the careful balance of relationships that have been built and the story moves up a gear.
The whole notion underpinning the story is a fascinating one. Generally, however, I feel the author has tried to incorporate too many themes, which can at times make the story feel dislocated – probably reflecting the experience of the characters dragged out of their own time.
Setting isn’t particularly strong in this novel. There are glimpses of London, where most of the novel is set: “Christmas was coming in, the way it does in London – flat rain, flat wind and the folding down of the horizons. The city looked it was painted by a lesser Impressionist.” There are glimpses of Gore’s team in the cold waters, a couple of pages inserted into the modern day story every now and then revealing a little about the past lives of Gore and his companions.
This is certainly an interesting read, something different.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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