Is it ridiculous to buy a book purely because the cover is so beautiful that you long to display it on your shelf, like a finely crafted ornament? In this case, I can well imagine myself being that ridiculous. In this era of mass-produced trade paperbacks, designed to be read once and either discarded or casually added to your local street library, it’s exciting to come across a hardcover with such an intriguingly designed jacket. This is a book that will adorn your shelves for years to come.

Fortunately, the quality of the cover is matched, and possibly surpassed, by the quality of the writing in this novel from Sarah Perry. Set in Victorian England shortly before the end of the 19th century, it explores the gap between an increasingly sophisticated and questioning middle class and the working class, who cling to religious certainty while remaining in thrall to myths of an ancient monster hidden in the depths of the river, apparently surfacing periodically to menace the local population.

Cora Seaborne, an amateur palaeontologist, has welcomed her recent widowhood; her husband was a thoroughly unpleasant fellow. Now, with her companion, Martha, and her autistic son, Francis, she leaves the comforts of London and sets out for the wilds of Essex, where she is soon caught up by the tales of the Essex Serpent. She also unexpectedly finds herself in love with a married local vicar.

Perry’s writing is poetic and assured: ‘Time was being served behind the walls of Newgate jail, and wasted by philosophers in cafes on the Strand; it was lost by those who wished the past were present and loathed by those who wished the present past.’

If you enjoy the writing of Dickens, or perhaps John Fowles, you are sure to enjoy this.

Reviewed by Marian Barker