Book Review: Stories From Other Places by Nicholas Shakespeare

Hardback by Harvill Secker, £16.99 (ebook £6.99)

Diplomat’s son Nicholas Shakespeare is well-travelled, and his collection of short fiction does exactly what it says on the tin: it transports the reader to different places around the globe, and frequently back in time as well.

The first story, more of a novella really, is the most important. ‘Oddfellows’ is a tale constructed around a real but half-forgotten incident – The Battle Of Broken Hill in 1915. Astonishingly, two Afghan camel herders actually did launch their own do-it-yourself jihad in the middle of the Australian Outback.

The historical significance, and tragedy, of the episode might lead one to suppose the book is a difficult read. But Shakespeare writes sympathetically and convincingly about women, and he also believes in the power of love.

If the literary integrity of his stories is sometimes undermined by a romantic sensibility that would do credit to a Mills & Boons novel, we can forgive him that, can’t we?