London 1951. The war is over and the Festival of Britain is soon to open. Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson immerses you into this grey time of shortages when on the streets the spies are still busy.Journalist Harry Flynn had a bad war on the Burma railway. Unable to settle on his return to London he finds himself part of the organising team for the soon-to-open Festival of Britain. Charged with locating, ordering and delivering various sundry items required by the site’s designers, he tries to make a new life. Following an impulsive proposal and a quick ceremony, Flynn has a failed marriage behind him and continues to be unsuccessful in love.
Surprisingly for a novel by Atkinson, it takes a while to get into the story proper. At the halfway point, the pace changes. When not one woman but a second and then a third, go missing – a girl Flynn took out for a drink, a work colleague and his neighbour in the upstairs flat – he is the common denominator in the three police investigations. He doesn’t tell anyone about the missing hour on the night after his date with the missing girl or about a blood-stained scarf he doesn’t remember finding. Not understanding what is going on, Flynn feels helpless, ‘was he just a pawn in a larger game? A game where it felt like there were no rules at all.’
The Festival office is populated by a hotpotch of people, recruited for various nefarious reason, because of who they know, because they’re sexy, because they’re important or know someone who is, because of what they did in the war. The Festival is intended to shine a bright light on London and dismiss this daily greyness with fairground rides, dancing and food. But it is an event of smoke and mirrors, like the wartime double and triple agents still operating in London. Nothing is as it seems. The sumptuous Festival Cake is uncookable. One roomset is home to hundreds of rats. Someone is using an assumed name. And Flynn is being blackmailed.
There is so much to like in this book. The Shakespeare and poetry references, the Boy’s tutoring in grammar and pronunciation – awnithollojist, tiepogrifi – and Carswell Orange Blossom, the Festival cow. Atkinson has especial fun with the eccentric catalogue items requested by designers; a ‘Pyrex heat-resisting pudding dish (James A. Jobling and Co. Ltd, Sunderland)’ and ‘model animal, toad (Peggy Tearle, 202 London Road, Leicester).’
I have two favourite characters. Fourteen-year-old Boy, whose name Terence is rarely used, is the general dogsbody, fetching and carrying, soothing the frayed atmosphere with wise sayings learned from his mother. Veronica, Flynn’s thirteen-year old step-daughter, is a gem. Whisky-drinking, pulp fiction-reading Veronica turns out to be unafraid, independent and curious. While Flynn hesitates, she uses her initiative and says the unsayable.
A book of two halves. Reading a Kate Atkinson novel means to read on a number of layers, her wry wit combines with historical detail and the wartime stories of those involved in the Festival. Can a festival make everyone feel better about the greyness of their lives, will celebrating historical landmarks and achievements make people feel proud and empower them to make a better life going forwards?
Imperfect, full of laughs and wit, it left me feeling this is two books woven into one. See Atkinson’s Author’s Note at the end for an explanation of how this novel evolved.

Read my reviews of these other books by Kate Atkinson:-
A GOD IN RUINS
LIFE AFTER LIFE
NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY
SHRINES OF GAIETY
TRANSCRIPTION
BIG SKY #5JACKSONBRODIE
DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK #6JACKSONBRODIE
… and try the #FirstPara of EMOTIONALLY WEIRD

If you like this, try:-
‘When the Germans Come’ by David Hewson
‘The Light Years’ by Elizabeth Jane Howard #1CAZALET
‘The Rescue Man’ by Anthony Quinn

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview OUR NOBLE SELVES by Kate Atkinson https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-a8R via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-