A wild, frustrated girl whose dreams push the boundaries of her limited world, whose fancies those charged with her care do their best to dismiss.īut January tries her best to make Mr Locke happy. Temerarious January, who constantly wriggles from under the constraints she is raised with in spite of the best efforts of stern German governesses and their Victorian ‘cures’. From the start, there’s a gorgeous elision of what is real and what is fancy you can take everything at face value or as a commentary on the power of creativity and imagination (take it as real, you fool, stop overthinking it).Īt its most basic level, this is a coming of age tale: the story of January Scaller, ward of rich antiquities collector Mr Locke, living on his estate while her father seeks marvels to add to the collection. The magic of words brought to bear on a story about the magic of storytelling. And yet it’s self-aware enough to know it can be dismissed as a flight of fancy, so it revels in scents, bringing its worlds alive to your senses. It’s a book about the power of words, so it deploys unexpected descriptors with aplomb (or the reckless confidence of a teenage reader). Let’s start with that glorious prose, shall we? This is one of those cheeky tales where the narrative begs to be read aloud, its personable voice sometimes breaking the page to address the reader, sometimes lost in its own musings, but always full of compassion. It is my hope that this story is your thread, and at the end of it you find a door. Can January find the doors that will let her escape to the other worlds she dreams of? A fanciful young woman with promise is being moulded into a lady – but her imagination strains against the fetters of what is considered proper.
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