Canongate, ISBN-13:978-1-78689-376-5

A Costa Award winner, Kidd has been nominated for many more, and judging by Things in Jars, the accolades are well-deserved. She clearly delights in the written word—its rhythms, cadence and music, and her audacious playfulness with language bring to mind Dylan Thomas and Charles Dickens. Her exuberant prose conjures up the filth and squalor of Victorian London—its mephitic smells and high danger—but also its colour, vibrancy and wonder. Highly...