Samantha Harvey has an immersive style of writing that transports you to the time and place of her books. Orbital in particular made me feel as though I too was floating in space with those astronauts, it was just the right length and pitch to work beautifully.

In the case of The Western Wind though, I felt less immersed in the intricacies of a possible crime and all the many twists and turns that come with a mystery, than bogged down in mud and chickens. It was a relentlessly rainy, cold and miserable experience of a book. I turned the final page with relief, happy to leave the middle ages and muck behind.