Tag: historical fiction

Book Review – Helm by Sarah Hall

whatcathyreadnextLeave a comment

About the Book

Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind – a subject of folklore and wonder – who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time.

This is Helm’s life story, formed from the chronicles of those the wind enchanted: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish it, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture it – and the farmer’s daughter who fell in love. But now Dr Selima Sutar, surrounded by measuring instruments, alone in her observation hut, fears the end is nigh.

Vital and audacious, Helm is the elemental tale of a unique life force – and of a relationship: between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.

Format: Hardcover (368 pages) Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication date: 28th August 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Helm on Goodreads

Purchase Helm from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Helm was shortlisted for the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026 and is longlisted for both the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Climate Fiction Prize.  

The book is set in the Eden Valley in Cumbria revealing a landscape that has been shaped by the elements and by the people who’ve lived there over the centuries, leaving their mark by way of stone circles, roads, castles and railways.

Observing it all, since the dawn of time to the present day, is Helm, Britain’s only named wind. In the book Helm doesn’t just have a name, it has a voice, frequently addressing the reader directly. And it has a personality too: ferocious, mischievous, mercurial, occasionally vindictive, and a wry observer of human behaviour. It revels in its own power whilst at the same time bemoaning the fact that it often gets the blame for human mishaps, everything from headaches to flatulence. (Helm does have rather an obsession with bodily functions.) If you can’t get your head around the idea of an anthropomorphic wind, then this may not be the book for you.

The book features multiple storylines set in different historical periods ranging from Neolithic times to the present day. Through them, each of which are stylistically different, the author explores the interaction between humans and the natural world.

I’m going to focus on three storylines I particularly enjoyed. In the first a Neolithic tribe embark on the mammoth task of adding a huge monolith of red sandstone to a sacred stone circle (modelled on Long Meg and Her Daughters), enacting a vision revealed to its matriarch whilst she battled against a storm caused by Helm. Moving forward to the 13th century, a fanatical priest with a reputation for savagery, arrives in the area causing fear amongst its inhabitants. He views Helm as a demonic presence and, intent on exorcising it, undertakes a gruelling trek up the mountain from which the wind arises. And in the 1950s, a troubled, lonely young girl comes to regard Helm as a friend but this is viewed as evidence of mental disorder with tragic results.

A modern day storyline involves a scientist studying the increasing levels of microplastics in the atmosphere, something that may result in irreversible change to Helm. For me, this was the least engaging of the stories, partly because I found the character Dr Selima Sutar rather annoying and because its thriller-like tone seemed out of keeping with the theme of the book. I also thought it took up too much of the book.

Helm switches frequently between the various storylines, some of which have no neat resolution. Interspersed with these are lists – Helm’s own version of the Beaufort Scale, for example – diagrams, and descriptions of ‘trinkets’, objects that are souvenirs of Helm’s encounters with humans. Helm‘s stylistic inventiveness won’t appeal to every reader but it did, for the most part, to this one.

In three words: Imaginative, spirited, compelling
Try something similar: Villager by Tom Cox or There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

About the Author

Sarah Hall has twice been nominated for the Man Booker Prize and is the award-winning author of six novels and three short-story collections. Notably, she is the only author to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice – first in 2013 with ‘Mrs Fox’ and again in 2020 with ‘The Grotesques’. (Photo: Author website)

Connect with Sarah
Website | Facebook

Book Review – The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

About the Book

Cambridge, 1942. Twins Tessa and Theo had always shared everything – until the summer Tessa spent studying in France. She hasn’t been the same since. But before Theo can find out why, he is recruited by the RAF and disappears into the skies.

Determined to carve her own path, Tessa joins the clandestine Special Operations Executive, slipping into the shadows of occupied France. It will be dangerous work, but France is the home of her greatest love – and her darkest secret. Tessa has many reasons for wanting to return.

Two years later, Theo comes home. Tessa does not.

Format: Hardcover (432 pages) Publisher: The Borough Press
Publication date: 12th February 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Shock of the Light on Goodreads

Purchase The Shock of the Light from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

One of the many things I admired about this novel is how both Tessa’s and Theo’s motivations for the actions they take seem absolutely understandable. Tessa’s experience in France (although the author cleverly withholds every detail initially) changes her outlook but means for almost the first time there is something significant she can’t share with her brother. Both sense a change in the bond between them. There’s a distance where there was none before. It’s an unsettling feeling given the turbulent events unfolding in the world.

A necessary part of Tessa’s preparation for her role in the Special Operations Executive is adopting a new identity. For her, it’s not a challenge so much as a way to put recent events behind her. ‘Tessa in this world is Marianne, a new person with no ties, no obligations. No roots.’ The detail of Tessa’s training for her undercover mission felt completely authentic and are obviosuly based on meticulous research. What I hadn’t grasped before was the consequences for women such as Tessa if they were captured because they would not be afforded the status of prisoners of war. It made their role even more precarious and we see how chance – both good and bad – plays a part in Tessa’s story. It also reminded me once again of the courage of those in occupied France who joined the Resistance or who shielded its members.

Theo’s role as an RAF pilot is equally hazardous, a fact brought home to the reader early on. An event he witnesses stays with him forever, bringing the feelings of guilt that survivors often experience. I found Theo’s story utterly compelling. The author manages to pack many different elements into it, such as changing social attitudes, yet they never feel superfluous or irrelevant.

Theo’s search for answers about Tessa’s fate brings him up against a brick wall of denial, obfuscation and downright deceit. His reluctance to stop asking awkward questions brings serious personal consequences, only adding to suspicions there are things the British govenment simply don’t want known. It’s only decades later the full story is revealed, shedding light on a real life historical injustice. What I found particulary moving was Theo’s misplaced feelings of guilt. His anguish at the fact he stopped asking questions, his regret that he didn’t press harder for answers or didn’t ask the right questions.

The Shock of the Light gripped me from the start and didn’t let me go until the final page. It’s a remarkable debut.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of The Borough Press via NetGalley.

In three words: Compelling, moving, authentic
Try something similar: A Better Place by Stephen Daisley.

About the Author

Lori Inglis Hall was born and raised in Leicestershire, and now lives with her family in East Sussex. Her first novel The Shock of the Light explores the relationship between twins Tessa and Theo, who are torn apart by the trauma of war. She holds an MA in History and previously worked in politics and the arts.

Connect with Lori
Website | Instagram