PotsandPlots

Nonesuch was probably my most hotly anticipated release of 2026. Spufford’s Light Perpetual is a masterpiece, and I enjoyed (though did not love) his alternate history crime noir Cahokia Jazz.

He has also written a Narnia sequel, which is supposed to be amazing but has been buried in copyright issues. Nonesuch, promised to be a portal fantasy of sorts, set against the backdrop of the Blitz. I was very keen to see whether Spufford’s fantasy chops lived up to the hype.

It’s probably worth pointing out, as the book doesn’t do it anywhere, that this is not a complete story – We’re left with a cliffhanger and the words “To Be Continued.”

Growing Information:

Plant With: Occult Fantasy, London, The Blitz

Grows Into: A tale of love and resistance, with a sprinkling of magic

Rating: Vibrant Annual 🌻🌻 (Check here for rating information.)

Available now in Hardback (affiliate link).

The Review:

I was struck by the similarities between Nonesuch and Alan Moore’s The Great When. The Great When is set just after the war, and its main protagonist is male, making the perspectives and stories quite different, but the idea that there is another London that sits underneath our own is present in both novels. Both describe a tired, battered city, and they each contain some peripheral counter-culture artistic types that play vital roles in setting the tone of the story.

I have to say, if I were only going to read one of the pair, it would be The Great When – that is a truly excellent book. Fortunately, I don’t have such constraints, as Nonesuch is a fine read, too.

Nonesuch follows Iris Hawkins, an ambitious financial secretary, who becomes unexpectedly involved with a young radio engineer, Geoff. After spending the night with Geoff, Iris picks up a supernatural follower that tries to kill her. From here, she falls into a world filled with occult forces, including a group of British Fascists who are trying to alter time to bring about an early truce in the war.

The Time it is a Changin’ (Maybe)

Iris finds herself to be the only person who can stop the plot and is undoubtedly the linchpin of the novel, and an excellent character. Nonesuch wears its occult leanings lightly, with its strength lying in Iris’s efforts to make something of herself. She’s a woman in what is very much a man’s world. The war effort affords her the opportunity to make an impression at the firm she’s at, and she does everything she can to make the most of it. Iris is a driven but flawed character that we can’t help but admire.

Spufford’s depiction of life during the Blitz is another strength of the book. He captures the sense of dread perfectly, but also how it is impossible to live in dread all the time. The death and destruction become normalised. Life carries on. There’s no alternative.

The relationship between Geoff and Iris sits squarely in the middle of the novel. Geoff feels slightly out of time, a progressive who mostly uplifts Iris to be the best she can be. Spufford uses Geoff to probe and examine wartime attitudes to women, and the nature of marriage, work and relationships, offering us an insight into just how much was in flux during this tumultuous time. Not just geopolitics, but social attitudes too.

Nonesuch wasn’t quite as good as I hoped. The magic and mysticism are not as evocative as that of The Great When, and there were times when the story became almost pedestrian. Arguably, not very much happens at all, until the very end, when we’re left with that cliffhanger.

This is a book very much about the journey rather than the destination. I think the character exploration and the wartime scenes are evocative and interesting, and I enjoyed reading about the travails of Iris and Geoff, but the plot and drive of the novel are on the thin side.

I’m definitely excited for book two, but Nonesuch did not quite blow me away like I expected it to.