This was an unexpected treat. A fluent, delicate novel about love, war and loss, it reads like a dream - elegant, economically poetic sentences flowing one after another, shifts in perspective and setting and narrative direction handled seamlessly. Aldred Leith is a memorable protagonist, and Helen and Benedict, the literate, beautiful, not quite of this world sister and brother are simply lovely. And the host of other characters is handled deftly and with real feeling - Peter Exley, Audrey Fellowes, Tad, Talbot, Aurora, and the others all really come to life and it's often the more minor figures whose depictions most move one.
The Great Fire has a bit of a slow start, but once it caught hold of me, it never let go; I must admit that my heart sank when, not twenty pages from the end, Helen stepped out on a date with Sidney Fairfax. Hazzard writes old-fashionedly, with grace and subtlety; without ever seeming to try for too much, she wraps the reader up in a world from which I emerged only reluctantly, feeling as if I'd just read something real.
