The Vast Memory of Love

Malcolm Bosse has captured and character of London in the 1770s in this exuberant tale that intertwines the lives of Henry Fielding, the Earl of Sandwich, and John Wilkes, among others, with the fate of a livery boy who has come to the city to make his fortune. When Ned is wrongly accused of stealing from Lord Sandwich's larder, his dismissal into the mean streets of London quickly teaches the boy a lesson in survival: putting to use his skills as a shepherd, he trains a stray dog and emerges as the much feared Dog Cull, a renowned criminal who has not forgotten the man who wronged him. When the Earl of Sandwich is threatened by a scandal involving one of the many girls procured for him, Ned finds himself a part of an intricate scheme that will ultimately bring him revenge - or the noose. From the scheming Doctor Bostock and his doltish flunky Lemuel, scoundrels who introduce Ned to the life of crime; to Robert Scarrat, the nefarious procurer of girls for the ritual Black Masses attended by noblemen costumed as monks; to the notorious Jenny Rivers, Queen of Foists, who presides over London's criminal underground; to Judge Fielding himself, whose book Joseph Andrews finds its way into Ned's eager hands and whose mission it is to pull justice from chaos - this captivating drama is peopled with colorful figures and events. Adventure, misadventure, twists of fate, and, at the novel's center, the love affair between Ned and Clare, the kept woman of a local shopkeeper, combine to entertain, delight, and endlessly surprise. In The Vast Memory of Love, Malcolm Bosse has succeeded in writing an eighteenth-century novel in the 1990s, matching his previous achievements and displaying hisvirtuosity and range.