Joan Mackenzie reviews The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Hello I'm Joan and this book is called The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It’s such an inventive premise that it’s almost impossible to describe but I will give it a go. It’s set in a near future London when the government is experimenting with Time Travel and decides to bring five characters from earlier centuries into the 21st century and expose them to the modern world. And they will assign each of these people someone whom they refer to as a bridge to live with them for the first 12 months and help them to acclimatise to modern life. Now I’ve got to tell you I don’t do Time Travel it’s never interested me in the least but this book got me sucked in before I knew it. One of these characters was someone who truly was on the doomed Arctic expedition that Franklin went on in 1847. His name is Commander Graham Gore and here he is brought through to the 21st century. It seems implausible but somehow it all just works. The juxtaposition of these people, the timelines and now the modern world is very cleverly done. So you have these individuals from centuries ago who are suddenly being exposed to things like Spotify and dating apps and the internet. I would not have read this book if the publisher hadn’t insisted that I pick it up and I’m so glad that I did. So don’t make my mistake. I highly, highly recommend it.