THE DAZZLE OF THE LIGHT

Georgina Clarke

(Verve, £9.99)

 

Following the publication of Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety by only a few weeks, Georgina Clarke’s The Dazzle of the Light is similarly inspired by the London underworld of the 1920s (thinly-veiled versions of Kate Meyrick’s 43 Club appear in both novels), but Clarke’s main inspiration is the all-female gang the Forty Thieves, which operated out of the Elephant and Castle in the late 19th and early 20th Century, shoplifting from department stores and fencing the items they stole.

A world away from there, in Kensington, lives Harriet Littlemore, the only child of a respectable middle-class couple with very traditional attitudes and a keen awareness of their position in society. Harriet holds far more progressive beliefs, which are indulged, somewhat, by her fiancé, MP Ralph Christie, who assures her that once they’re married they will be an equal partnership – though only to the extent that she’ll be “typing” his speeches rather than “writing” them. Harriet’s parents have reluctantly permitted her to take a job at the local Kensington Gazette, which means a lot to her, even though she’s continually belittled by the male staff and relegated to writing trivial fluff for the women’s section. She dreams of the freedoms men enjoy, and of the opportunity to make the front page.

Which is why, when she witnesses a theft from a jeweller’s, she is captivated by her first sight of Ruby Mills. Ruby grew up south of the river, destined for a life of crime from childhood, and tutored in its ways by Solly, the jeweller who took her in, and the women of the Forty Thieves. At this stage, she mainly picks pockets and shoplifts luxury items, handing them over to the boss, Annie Richmond (based on the real-life Alice Diamond), who divides up the proceeds. But, with her film-star looks, charisma, sense of style and love of sparkly things, Ruby has ambitions for something greater – perhaps a future in which she leads the Forty Thieves, or perhaps something altogether classier.

Two different women from very different backgrounds, but both want more from their lives. From the moment their eyes meet on the pavement outside the jewellery shop as Ruby is making her getaway, their fates are locked together. Harriet envies Ruby’s boldness, her glamour, the way she walks through the world taking what she wants. Ruby feels a surge of excitement at being noticed, envied. When Harriet writes a piece about the Forty Thieves for the Gazette in a bid to advance her career, she unwisely makes Ruby the focus of her article, setting in motion a train of events that has far-reaching consequences for them both.

Along with an enviable gift for readability, Clarke has a knack for quickly getting us invested in her characters. Harriet can be dangerously naïve and self-centred, Ruby mercenary and ruthless. But each in her own way is boxed-in by a society that tells women to know their place and stay in it, and it’s hard not to be swept along by the thrill of their various transgressions and little victories, or to resist a shudder each time they have to pay the price for them.

There are hints of an erotic attraction between the sheltered ingénue and the streetwise hustler, but Clarke doesn’t push too hard in that direction, preferring to explore the spaces where respectable society and the murky underworld meet and mingle. Driven along by its narrative energy, two rounded central characters and our hope that they will somehow prevail against the forces stacked against them, it’s definitely a page-turner.

ALASTAIR MABBOTT