Sweet Caress by William Boyd Review by Simon Church, Book Stop

Sweet Caress by William Boyd

Review by Simon Church, Book Stop

William Boyd (A Good Man in Africa, Any Human Heart, Restless) has always been a great storyteller and is firmly established as one of the best of his generation.  In this exquisite tale of Miss Amory Clay, compellingly written in the first person, he presents us with much more than a great story.  On the one hand it is the story of a life or, as the subtitle has it, the “Many Lives of Amory Clay” as daughter, lover, wife and mother and as society, art and war photographer.  On the other it is a tale of the Twentieth Century, its wars, upheavals and social transformation.  Amory is everywhere, from the brothels of Berlin between the wars to a British Union of Fascists march in the East End, from the unreality of wartime New York to the grim reality of the conflict in Vietnam.  And throughout we are treated to snapshots of Amory’s professional and personal life with samples of her photography.  What makes this novel such an achievement is its effortless movement from one momentous historical event to the next without seeming in any way contrived.  This is a moving and entirely convincing portrayal of a woman’s adventure in a quite extraordinary century.

Hardback: 18.99; Publisher: Bloomsbury