To Say Nothing of the Dog

I love this book – and have read it at least four times – because it’s hilarious, with an interwoven plot that keeps the reader guessing. It mixes excellent historical scholarship (on England in the Second World War, in the 1880s, and in the mid-fourteenth century), with science fiction, a detective mystery, and two love stories.

The title deliberately echoes Jerome K. Jerome’s 1889 classic, hilarious, and inimitable Three Men in a Boat (to say Nothing of the Dog) – but I didn’t re-read that book this year, so can’t list it here. (The original three men and dog make… show more.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a fairly brilliant time-travel novel about a temporal historian named Ned Henry. Whether you like it will probably come down to taste. It made me laugh out loud more than once. I loved Cyril the dog. I loved Baines the butler. I may have developed a bit of a crush on Verity. (That has never happened to me with a character in a book before.) This book, which has been described as a symphony of a novel, radiates intelligence and good humour and belongs on your reading list, at the very top, if… show more.

Connie Willis and Kage Baker are, in my mind, kindred spirits. Both are outstanding in their ability to capture human nature, both in its glory and with its pants down. And with sparkling humor. I love many of Willis’s books but this little one is so fun, clever, and intriguing that it has to be my favorite.

It also features time travellers - British historians from the future who are documenting historical events while trying desperately not step on that one butterfly that destroys history.

This book is doubly funny because it is inspired by an equally hilarious novel by… show more.