A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

Stepping into another of Mantel's historical novels felt very much like returning to an old friend. This novel follows three men - Camille Desmoulins, Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre - as they foment a revolution and then quickly become ensnared in an ever-changing and increasingly dangerous regime. 

All of the magic of Mantel's prose is here, particularly the way she can somehow conjure her subjects - long dead - into life. That ability to animate the written word is something that she and Miéville share, but they achieve it in such vastly different ways and are otherwise at different ends of the spectrum. With Mantel it's much sparer, with description used only when it serves her ends for a particular scene. There is much more emphasis on the dialogue, on what is left unsaid. It feels dramatic somehow, like watching a play rather than reading a novel. I love how she sparks these characters into life but still maintains a shroud of ambiguity; she does it beautifully with the figure of Cromwell and she does it here too, particularly with Danton. And there are moments of poignancy, of pause, which will make you want to get out the highlighter and ask yourself how on earth she does it. 

But it is clear this is a much earlier work than her Cromwell trilogy. It is less taut and feels a little more baggy and loose. Its focus is less, being that it revolves around three characters rather than one. But this messiness just makes it a different kind of work, and once you find its rhythm it is still incredibly enjoyable. I have to say I did study the French Revolution at A-Level and had to dig around in my memory to get to grips with some of the parts of this book - a little background knowledge certainly does not go amiss here as it rollicks through the years. But overall if you can find the time for this tome, I think it's well worth it.