This is the second offering from Susanna Clarke, whose 2004 novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell I enjoyed when it was published in 2004.

This collection of well-crafted short stories inhabits the same Victorian England-meets-Faerie world of Jonathan Strange, and Clarke’s follows the same discursive, amusingly-footnoted style of her novel.

For fans of Neil Gaiman there’s a story in this collection titled “The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse” which concerns the same village of Wall from Stardust.

Probably the finest, and funniest story in this collection is also the last, “John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner”, which concerns the mythical fairy king, the misfortunes of a poor man he inadvertently harms, and the intervention of several Christian saints. Not only is it a fine story on its own merits, it also encapsulates much of Clarke’s style and some of the central ideas she’s working through in this collection and in Jonathan Strange.

Great fun.