Carmel and Katrina’s “friendship” is established by chance early on, cemented when their strong mothers settle into their own solidarity. In An Experiment in Love, we are shown how these relationships evolve as the two girls progress through the 1960s state education system to become first generation university students, moving from their home town in Lancashire to study in London in 1970.
Along the way a third girl impinges on the “friendship”, boys and sex arrive on the scene and we watch Carmel’s slow yet steady descent into anorexia.
Hilary Mantel’s sequel to Wolf Hall sees Thomas Cromwell manage the machinations to bring about the downfall of Anne Boylen and positioning of Jane Seymour as Henry VIII’s third queen. The style took me a while to adjust to, but, as with Wolf Hall, once I’d tuned in to Cromwell’s narrative, I was hooked. Borrowed from Janette and read over the bitterly cold Easter break in Walton on the Naze.
