The Great Stink by Clare Clark

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The Great Stink was fairly enjoyable. It was well written, had character development and a plot that was fairly interesting. It also seemed to have been well researched. It didn't escape my notice that the writer was a historian, and that the history of smell is one of the newest areas that historians are currently researching.

I enjoyed the questioning of what was and wasn't madness, and the grimy and smelly portrayal of the Victorian Era. I was rather dissapointed to see that the actual Great Stink only took up a couple paragraphs and that the story was mainly built around the sewers. I would have liked more of the suffering of everyone during that time, rather than just the people who seemed not to mind the smell! Truth be told I think I would have preferred an actual Victorian novel. But as modern books go it wasn't at all bad. (Though not nearly as enjoyable as Peter Ackroyd.

Quite enjoyable.