A Dickens of a tale Down Under

HISTORICAL EITHNE FARRY THE DICKENS BOY by Thomas Keneally (Sceptre £20, 400 pp)

EDWARD Bulwer Lytton Dickens was just 16 when his famous father, Charles, sent him alone to Australia to ‘apply himself’.

Beloved as a boy, and nicknamed ‘Plornishmaroontigoonter’ — shortened to Plorn — the teen was a disappointment to the distinguished author, a fact the fictional Plorn is initially unaware of in Keneally’s genial, wry recreation of his time in remote New South Wales.

Sweet, sensitive Plorn, who has never read a word of ‘The Guvnor’s’ work, heads to the outback, determined to make a success of life as a sheep farmer. But he is constantly approached by a beguiling assortment of characters who can recite whole passages of the ‘great magician’s’ books.

Keneally’s approach to Plorn is kindly, as the forlorn boy reassesses his unquestioning devotion to his dad, and carves out his own life amidst colonists, convicts and the Paakantyi tribe. THE ABSTAINER by Ian McGuire (Scribner £14.99, 368 pp)

TAUT and tense, Ian McGuire’s thriller plunges into the murk of Manchester’s back streets in 1867, as James O’Connor, a policeman on secondment from Dublin, faces a turbulent political situation — and a life without whisky.

He’s an uncertain outsider grieving for the death of his wife and child, and must find out as much as possible about the Irish insurgents determined to end British rule in their home country.

The book opens with the hanging of three ‘rebels’ and heads into the shadows of spies, informers, agitators and an American Civil War veteran who adds chaos to an already volatile situation.

Matters are complicated further by the arrival from the

U.S. of O’Connor’s gauche nephew, whom James recruits to infiltrate the Fenian Brotherhood.

In lean, atmospheric prose, McGuire unspools a bloody tale of revenge and retribution. THE EVENING AND THE MORNING by Ken Follett (Macmillan £25, 832 pp)

FOLLETT’S easy, breezy prose style manages to make the 800-plus pages of his latest epic an effortlessly engaging and entertaining read.

It’s a prequel to the bestselling The Pillars Of The Earth, and heads back to the Dark Ages, when Vikings are rampaging along the coast of England, Wales is in uproar, and the future of the Kingdom looks uncertain.

In these tumultuous times, three vivid characters navigate the perils of daily life, while striving against poverty, sexism and the wily machinations of powerhungry enemies.

Edgar is an 18-year-old boat builder, whose carpentry skills will change his fate. Lady Ragna is whip-smart and wealthy, but hampered by society’s restrictions; while learned monk Aldred takes a stance against the machinations of the powerful, but immoral and duplicitous, Bishop Wynstan.