It seems almost fitting that I should be posting a review about this book in the week that marks the 70th anniversary of the Second World War as that is the setting for Sarah Water's fourth novel The Night Watch. I am completely unfamiliar with the author or indeed any of her former works and selected this book in the library purely because of its wartime setting and that it stated on the cover the book had been short-listed for the Booker Prize 2006 and the Orange prize, I was also unaware that Waters is known for her gay fiction novels and so was pleasantly surprised at having another angle on the book that I was not expecting. Before I even begin to ...  Read the complete review

The Nightwatch is Sarah Waters fourth novel and is one of the favourites to win this years Booker prize. It has received a good reception from critics, but a more mixed reaction from her readers. The title of this review reflects the fact that after Waters described "Tipping the Velvet" as a Victorian lesbian romp, she is now often seriously cited as has having created a new genre of the same name. This is the first of her books to step outside the Victorian era and takes place in 1940's London. As you might expect with a writer of her ability, the period is beautifully described and convincing in detail, without going over the top. There is a sense ...  Read the complete review

The Night Watch - Sarah Waters The Night Watch is a tale of passion and secrets told against the backdrop of 1940's London. The story revolves around the loves and losses of 4 characters Kay, Helen, Viv and Duncan and how each of their stories interconnect over a 7 year period. I am sorry to say that I felt that this book was a bit of a let down. Whilst the setting and time period are wonderfully imagined I found the storylines to be overly drawn out and the characters to be rather 2 dimensional. The book is written in a reverse narrative whereby we are introduced to the characters and then invited to find out how they arrived at their ...  Read the complete review

Sarah Waters is well known for her excellent novel Tipping the Velvet. After reading that and loving it I then went on to read Fingersmith and Affinity, all three books have a lot in common as they feature a female protagonist in a lesbian love story set in the Victorian era. This book deviates from these first three books as it is set during and post the second world war, and follows the stories of a few different people. PLOT The story is split into three parts. Using the same characters in all three it tells the story of what is happening in their lives in 1947, 1944 and 1941. The book starts in 1947, just after the second world war has finished, and ...  Read the complete review

I have bought every book in print by this Author. Why ? I based my judgement on my experience of her works entitled “Fingersmith” and my favourite book, “Affinity”. Her descriptive work is astounding. What Sarah Waters achieved in her earlier books was to take every fragment of thought and reason, every emotion, dissect it, describe it and take the reader into the minds of her superbly drawn characters. This is a truly outstanding achievement for a modern writer, and I am not easily impressed. The former books were set against an historical background, and in this, Sarah Waters excels and the detail used is exquisitely believable. “The Night Watch” is based ...  Read the complete review