I think that this novel might well be described as a ‘romp’.

While set in contemporary London (well, almost contemporary, having been written in the dawn of the current century), it takes in a seventeenth century Greek church, historic sites around London and an ancient Greek manuscript. The contemporary aspects lie in the machinations of an ambitious and avaricious young lawyer who sees an opportunity to sequester a considerable fortune, aided and abetted by a pair of opportunistic Greeks, while the forces for good are represented by a capable and confident scholar assisted by an Australian woman financing her travails as a mature student by evening shifts in a central London pharmacy.

London itself plays a central role, with different parts of the city being rendered in affectionate detail. At times I was reminded of the opening scenes of J B Priestley’s Angel Pavement, while at others the book evoked Dickens. There are a couple of literary subplots, too.

All in all, it was highly entertaining, although occasionally it veered rather too close to the overly whimsical for my taste. ( )

A young lawyer, who is not paid as much as he believes he is worth, stumbles across some information on a fabulously valuable bequest - priceless antiques and a large plot of land in an up-and-coming part of London - which has never found its rightful owner and which only he (and soon another similar lawyer, an ally of his) is aware of. At the same time, however, an unlikely group of people - a Byzantine scholar, an Australian pharmacist and graduate student, an activist specialising in London's public spaces, an archaelogist who's just turned up a Greek memorial fountain - are following their own trails which may eventually lead them to the same information.

It's based on a huge coincidence of course, but a complete delight to read - for the plotting, the catty prose, and the underlying heart (what the good guys all have in common is that they are interested, in one way and another, in community, and it's this which does in the selfish plots of the baddies).

Fantastic. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2010/08/201068-london-bridges-jane-stevenson.html ( )