Oh dear, this was not for me. I never do well with fantasy fiction and with the exception of Set My Heart to Five by Simon Stephenson , I have not found one I liked. I knew I was in trouble by the time I read the second sentence and found the main character was called 'Wendowleen'. That's the same name given to the potential girlfriend in one of the Wallace and Gromit animated films, and after that I was stuck with the image of a plasticine woman with bobbed hair that looks like a loaf of bread and rather big teeth. The story is set in a fantasy world that I didn't really get to grips with, but the people are ruled by a political group known as The Finery that oversees all aspects of their lives. Professor Wedowleen Cripcot is over a hundred years old and lives with her assistance wolf in a large house with more bedrooms than she is entitled to. The Finery has decided that she must either take in a lodger or move somewhere smaller, even though it has ...