Amanda Craig

From the moment I read the synopsis of The Golden Rule I knew I wanted to read it. I was intrigued by the idea that two strangers meet on a train and plot to kill each other's husbands in what ought to be perfect, untraceable murders. This of course is very similar to the plot of Strangers on a Train and Amanda Craig did use it as part of her inspiration for this book.

However, this is not a crime novel, nor a thriller. This is a beautifully portrayed story of all of human life: the rich, the show more poor, the kind, the unkind, the perception of London hoi polloi and Cornish yokels. I was totally bewitched by it from start to finish.

Hannah is a single mother, poor but with a husband who could support her but instead abuses her, mentally and physically. Hannah is industrious but life is such a struggle for her. She meets Jinni on a train to Cornwall, Hannah's home county, and Jinni is everything she is not. She's rich, poised and stylish. But she wants to get rid of her husband and Hannah feels that she can only cope with her life if she can be free of Jake. A plot is hatched.

Nothing goes to plan though and Hannah's return to Cornwall is revelatory for many reasons, especially when she goes to Jinni's house and meets a man called Stan. I had in my mind that there was something of the Beauty and the Beast about the pair of them and I was pleased to see in the author's afterword that she had also used that as her inspiration. I loved the way Craig skilfully weaved together all the strands to create such a clever and engrossing story. I also particularly liked the fact that Hannah is a big reader and books are such a big part of the story as a whole.

One other thing that particularly stood out was the depiction of Cornwall. Hannah is from a place that has not been touched by holiday makers and second home owners. Compare that to the more affluent areas and you can see why the Cornish might get a bit peeved about incomers.

I can't do justice to The Golden Rule in just a few paragraphs. It's a book that I could talk and talk about, there's so much in there. It's razor-sharp, yet so thoughtful, it's bold, yet understated. It really has it all. show less

Quite simply, this is an extraordinary novel, although sadly I think it is beyond my powers to describe it adequately without making it sound too fanciful. Amanda Craig captures the multi-tiered aspects of London society as it edges toward the almost catastrophic financial downturn that arose from the ‘credit crunch’ of 2008.

The story revolves around five principal characters and the intricate way in which they all gradually become involved with each other. We meet Polly, a divorcee and show more single mother whose work as a human rights lawyer takes up most of her waking hours, leaving her permanently exhausted and struggling to balance the demands of family life. As the novel opens, her plight becomes even more stressful as Iryna, the Russian au pair who had been so fundamental to the stability of her household, disappears.

Meanwhile Job is an illegal immigrant who fled poverty, oppression and torture in Zimbabwe. Having managed to garner enough money to secure a flight to London, he is now straining to balance two draining jobs, switching between working as a minicab driver and handwashing smart cars at a dubious establishment in the hinterland of King’s Cross. Between these two posts he manages to scrape enough money to pay his rent for a dreadful bedsit, and also to send a small sum each month back home to his wife in Zimbabwe. It is now more than six months since he received any word from his wife, and he is no longer confident that she is even still alive.

Ian Bredin is a South African, working as a teacher at an inner London comprehensive school, still facing another two terms before he can secure his ‘Qualified Teacher’ status. The school is underfunded, and nearly all of the pupils are disaffected: bullying is rife, and religious divides within the diverse, multicultural school population are already becoming prevalent. Despite his best intentions, Ian finds that he spends most of his time merely preventing fights from breaking out in the classroom, and he knows that he never manages actually to teach his pupils anything.

Katie is from New England, and decamps to London following a failed relationship with a man from an immensely wealthy family, but who turned out, despite a charming carapace, to be boorish beyond measure. Now in London, Katie finds herself struggling to survive in what seems a very lonely city. She works as assistant (almost skivvy) to the editor of the twenty-first century iteration of The Rambler, the weekly journal that in former times had been journalistic home to the likes of Dr Johnson, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

Anna is a fifteen year old Lithuanian girl who leaps at the opportunity to escape from what she fears will be a life of utter drudgery. Her hopes of a new life soar when a young woman who had been a couple of years ahead of her at school returns from London, clad in marvellous chic clothes and make up, eager to recruit other girls to come and join her there, working as waitresses or chambermaid. Anna cannot be dissuaded from throwing her lot in, only to find that she has been trafficked, and is pitched into a life of what seems like unremitting Hell.

All five of them will find their stories intersecting in the most shattering way. Exquisitely plotted, the author never once lets the string of coincidences impair the underlying plausibility of the story, and all of the characters are beautifully drawn.

Amanda Craig also manages to deliver blistering attacks on the plights of asylum seekers, and the manner in which the underclass become almost invisible to the bulk of the population though a communal wave of denial, though she achieves this without ever seeming to proselytise. All in all this is an enchanting novel, and a great way to start a new year of reading. show less

I had waited for this book for a long time. I first encountered Amanda Craig’s books following a chance purchase of ‘Hearts and Minds’ a few years ago, and I was immediately hooked. I read through her earlier novels and then start ed akmost counting the days until this one was published. It didn’t disappoint.

Lottie and Quentin Bredin have been married for a while, living in relative affluence in North London with their two daughters and her older son from a previous relationship. She show more is a successful architect, working for a popular practice, while he is a journalist, writing his own column in a daily tabloid. But then things start to go wrong. The reverberations of the credit crunch proved long lasting, thinning out the number of potential clients seeking the services of an architect, leading to Lottie becoming unemployed. Then Quentin, who has, meanwhile, been outed as a serial philanderer, loses his regular job, too, leaving him dependent upon occasional freelance work.

The upshot of all this is that while both resolved to divorce, they are unable to afford to live apart. An escape route opens up when Lottie sees an advert for a cottage in Devon available to rent at an unfeasibly low price. They can let their house in London, and from the income that yields, they can cover their mortgage payments and the rent for the house in Devon, with almost enough left over to live on. Buoyed up by the prospects of a solution to their problems, they nevert stop to question the cheapness of the rent for the Devon cottage.

The difficulties they encounter adapting to country life are adeptly worked. Lottie’s son Alexander (known as Xan) finds the transition particularly hard. He had aspired to go to Cambridge to study English but, having just missed out with his A level grades, he is sinking into a depressive resentment against life. Meanwhile his half-sisters struggle to establish themselves at their new school. There are a series of encounters between the Bredins and their new neighbours, all of which demonstrate the gulf between thir lifestyles.

As always with Craig’s books, however, there is a dark hinterland. This is not just a story about lack of harmony between the local and ‘incomers’. There are dark secrets, and deep rifts, throughout the local community, at the heart of which lives Gore Tore, a retired and exclusive rock musician, who also happens to be the Bredins’ new landlord. One thing that everyone in the local community has in common is that they all seem to go quiet whenever the Bredins’ cottage is mentioned.

Craig pulls fall the threads together masterfully. All her characters are completely plausible, and Lottie is particularly empathetic. One trait I have seen in all her previous books is her ability to weave extensively interlaced storylines, and this latest book is no exception. Beautifully written and deeply satisfying. show less

Lottie and Quentin Bredin are at a crossroads in their relationship. Quentin has been unfaithful and Lottie wants a divorce but although on paper they appear comfortable, their only major asset is their house in London and bother have recently lost their jobs. Renting out the house and moving to Devon seems to be a compromise but as Lottie gains her independence, Quentin is tied to his dying father. Meanwhile there is the matter of the murder that took place at their rental...

In theory this show more book shouldn't work at all, Craig has managed to cram in every cliche about modern life into one volume. Racism in the country? Migrant workers from Eastern Europe? Factory food? Infidelity? Child abuse? Murder? The truth about the rural idyll? Even broadband issues get a look in. Yet it works incredibly well simply because Craig is an engaging writer. show less