Visiting Westminster and St James’s? This is your novel!
- Book: Apple Tree Yard
- Location: London
- Author: Louise Doughty
Apple Tree Yard is not a new book – it was published in 2013. But it is one that (sadly) passed me by at the time – although it was reviewed by a colleague at TripFiction. I recently picked out a slightly worn copy from a book box in a hotel in Thailand (having exhausted the books I had taken with me on my trip). And it is a really very good read.
Yvonne Carmichael is a middle aged academic with a high flying job and reputation in the field of Genetics. She is in parliament testifying to a House of Commons Committee when she allows herself – for some reason – to be seduced by an attractive man who ‘chats her up’. It is completely out of character. Over the following months, although she knows very little about him, they have sex in many a strange and exotic locations. He has an air of mystery, and Yvonne suspects he may be involved with MI5 or some other spy agency. She (obviously) keeps the affair – if indeed that is what it is – completely hidden from her husband and family. Then an event happens that changes her life forever. It is horrific and leads to an Old Bailey trial for both her and her lover. Much of the second half of the book is taken up with fascinating details of the trial itself.
Apple Tree Yard is a book I found hard to put down, and was sad when I had finished. The author leads you gently from one page to the next – all the time revealing just a little bit more.
It is a very good book to read for anyone visiting London and, especially, Westminster and St James’s. The area is extremely well described.
An excellent book, and one that I am sorry I missed when it was first published.
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