This has been catalogued as science fiction by my library system, but I’d be more likely to describe it as historical fiction with a touch of magic realism, similar to The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock or Things in Jars. The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner (2022) Sam Usher’s Quentin Blake-like illustrations are a bonus, though. The problem, really, was that – believe it or not – this isn’t the first middle-grade time-slip historical fantasy novel about frost fairs that I’ve read the other, Frost by Holly Webb, was better. A low page count meant this felt pretty thin, with everything wrapped up too soon.

Maya hopes to help Eddie, and Gran, all while figuring out what the gift parcel means. Now the family is in a taxi home, crossing London Bridge, when Maya notices snow falling faster than seems possible and finds herself on a busy street of horse-drawn carriages, overlooking booths and hordes of people on the frozen river.Ī sickly little boy named Eddie is her tour guide to the games, rides and snacks on offer here in 1788, but there’s a man around who wants to keep him from enjoying the fair. Christmas is coming, and Gran handed out peculiarly mismatched presents: Maya’s older sister got a lovely brooch, while her own present was a weird brick-shaped brown object Gran says belonged to “Edmund”. Maya’s mum is visiting family in India Maya and her dad and sister have just settled Gran into a clinical care home. (I’d like to revisit Virginia Woolf’s Orlando for a 17th-century scene of that.) This thematic trio of a children’s book, a historical novel, and a poetry collection came together rather by accident: I already had the poetry collection on my shelf, then saw frost fairs referenced in the blurb of the novel, and later spotted the third book while shelving in the children’s section of the library.Ī Night at the Frost Fair by Emma Carroll (2021) In previous centuries, the entire Thames has been known to freeze through central London. The local canal froze over for a time the other day when I thought it had all thawed, a pair of mallard ducks surprised me by appearing to walk on water. Here in southern England, we’ve just had a couple of weeks of hard frost.

The Frost Fairs by John McCullough