Book of the week: The Radical Potter by Tristram Hunt

In this exceptional biography, Hunt shows that Josiah Wedgwood was the Steve Jobs of his day

Tristram Hunt
(Image credit: Joe Maher/Getty Images)

In 2004, Susanna Clarke’s debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, “became a publishing phenomenon”, said Justine Jordan in The Guardian. The acclaimed story of “two scholar magicians” in Regency England, it sold four million copies and was adapted for a BBC mini-series.

Soon after its publication, Clarke developed chronic fatigue syndrome, and for many years was largely confined to bed. During that time, she worked on a planned sequel to “JS&MrN”, but failed to make significant progress. Her confinement, however, appears to have helped inspire the “unique” follow-up she eventually produced.

Piranesi, which last week won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, is “the most gloriously peculiar book I’ve read in years”, said Alex Preston in The Observer. Its eponymous hero, a man of around 30, lives alone in a vast house that has tides sweeping through its lower floors, “pouring over the statues and ornaments, rushing up staircases”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Piranesi knows of the existence of only one other person – a disdainful figure known only as “the Other” – who visits him twice a week. He believes only 15 people have ever existed: himself, “the Other”, and 13 more, whose remains are distributed throughout the house. But gradually, he starts to unlock the secret of his identity – and of his imprisonment.

This is a work of “original strangeness” which stays “lodged in your head long after you’ve finished reading”, said Sarah Ditum in The Times. So remarkable are Clarke’s descriptive powers that she makes “insane worlds feel as solid as our own”. Piranesi is “close to perfect” – and a deserving winner of the Women’s Prize.

Bloomsbury 272pp £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99

Piranesi book cover

The Week Bookshop

To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us