Light Over Liskeard

This is the second of two books I picked up for holiday reading based on their being set in Cornwall where I was going. I have read de Bernières best known book Captain Corelli’s Mandolin but it was sometime in the mid 1990s and I’ve long since forgotten everything about it, and obviously didn’t enjoy it enough to pick up any of his other work. My reading tastes have definitely changed over three decades and I thought it was worth having another try.

I really quite enjoy reading books where I haven’t the foggiest idea what is going to happen. Blurbs so often give away too much of the plot so I dived into this one only knowing it was set in Cornwall. I was vaguely expecting something historical and absolutely wasn’t expecting a story set in a near future dystopia of robots and artificial intelligences. And once I got my head around the setting I quite enjoyed the story. It’s about how a middle aged man, Artie, expecting the end of the world, restores a derelict farm on Bodmin Moor and makes it a home for his family. He’s helped by his neighbour Theo who is restoring extinct wildlife to the moor, and Theo’s daughter Eva, and eventually his children arrive too. It’s a pretty engaging family story.

But ever since I finished the book it’s been going round in my head. I think it’s supposed to be seen as a hopeful book about the future and about how we can get life, nature, back from the brink. But Artie is a quantum cryptographer who works with the government, he knows the prime minister and he’s so sure the the world is about to reach full on apocalypse because he has a seat at the table where those decisions are made. And he doesn’t try to build a community or help others. Ultimately he’s just one well off guy building himself a compound for his own survival. Whilst I was entertained by most of the novel - there’s a number of hugely fun setups in here - I wanted there to be an upbeat message but was ultimately left despairing rather than hopeful.