Angel Isle

Some five years after the publication of Peter Dickinson’s widely praised and Carnegie shortlisted The Ropemaker comes a sequel of equally epic proportion and intent. Fans of the earlier volume will continue to respond to the power and excitement of a narrative which is, in essence, a celebration of what its young heroine, Maja, at one point perceives as ‘the magic of the universe’. This, while primarily an alternative universe of Dickinson’s creation, has fascinating thematic links – dynastic rivalries, power struggles, the use and abuse of knowledge – with the one more familiar as our own everyday world but such parallels as these are never allowed to dominate the sheer vigour and inventiveness of the story, a story which, incidentally, is at considerable pains to stress the significance and continuity of the redemptive art of storytelling itself. Even if some of the paraphernalia of the quest story – ‘big magic, dragons, burning city, flying battle-wagons, monster storm, convulsion close by’ – may inevitably seem hackneyed and predictable, they retain here a sharpness and freshness simply because of the quality of the writing. This is nowhere more evident than in the beautiful delicacy of touch with which the novel handles a poignant sub-theme of unrequited love. Warmly recommended.