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The Great Stink by: Clare Clark

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Publisher: Penguin
Release date: 6th April, 2006
Media: Paperback

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Rating: - Slow burner

I found the first 70 pages or so really hard going and nearly gave up on it. The language seemed laboured, the characters one-dimensional, the whole thing seemed a bit amateurish. It picks up, though, and some of the descriptions of Victorian London are rather good - if perhaps slightly borrowed from Mayhew's London Poor. Confused, traumatised William May is such a wreck he is rather hard to follow, and it isn't until the later stages when the underdogs of lawyer Rose and Long Arm Tom become the focus of attention that the book gathers pace.

Rating: - Blood red and excrement brown

A compelling story told with passion and panache, some wonderful descriptive language and a nicely representative set of characters. All are beset by the appalling conditions of Victorian London, with which they are forced to contend on a physical level unthinkable today.

I found the story of Long Arm Tom and his fighting dog Lady almost unbearably poignant (a love story between man and dog that is truly believable), but it is the story of William Gay, Engineer of the London sewers that grips most powerfully. Tormented by his memories of the Crimean war and the battle of Scutari, he feels such a black depression within himself that he is driven to cutting into his own flesh with a knife to try to erase it. Then, just as he seems to be on the road to recovery, he is embroiled in the corrupt practises of one of his superiors and disaster seems all but certain.

This novel is painted in with stark colours, blood red and excrement brown most prevalent, but it is a tremendous page turner.

Rating: - the great stink

An excellent book which keeps the reader on the edge all of the way through.It starts very graphically with all of the horrors of war and begins to explain the results that these horrors have on the mental state of the central character.All else in the book results from his experiences and turns a simple loving character into a complex figure who has little control over his actions.
The atmosphere created by the author of a victorian England that has hardly ever been reported is superb.The reader can almost smell and taste the desperation of life in that era.
The rest of the characters are brilliantly written and totally believeable as the book includes changes in society which impact forever upon lives and the struggle to survive in such a harsh society.All of this and a sort of happy ending as well.
A fantastic read which will remain in the memory for ever.

Rating: - the reality of history

Sir Joseph Bazalgette has long been one of my greatest historical heroes. Indeed, he always will be, and his achievement regarding the sewers of London must rank as one of the greatest engineering successes of Victorian London. It certainly ended the cholera plagues in a way that no medical knowledge did. I knew that the project must have been a logistical nightmare, but the author picks away at the fabric of social pride, allowing the reader to glimpse the underlying politics and suffering beneath, in a minutely detailed, fascinating way. To me, history is the sociology of the past,and this view of the foundations of Victorian society is a sombre lesson that we would do well to remember- "it's the rich wot gets the money, and the poor wot gets the blame." Ain't it all a bleeding shame?

Rating: - Cracking little novel this!

Very readable work with appealingly well drawn characters and an interesting plot built around the construction of London's sewer system during the 19th century. Found it hard to put it down for long!

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