Perry also captures a society on the brink of a profound shift, uncomfortably reassessing its view of the world through the prism of scientific progress.

The biggest question of all is whether his marriage can withstand his bewildering feelings for Cora.ĭespite some distractingly modern speech, Sarah Perry has written an exquisitely absorbing, old-fashioned page-turner peopled by memorable characters, particularly the magnificent, stubborn and wilful Cora. Eventually, although Will has been tearing his hair out as the Essex Serpent makes his congregation question the existence of God, he finds himself questioning his own dearly held beliefs. They constantly call one another’s assumptions into question but as their relationship blossoms, their disagreements evolve into mutual dependency.

Will the vicar succumb to the powers of modern medicine or leave Stella in the hands of the Lord? Similarly Will’s Christianity contradicts Cora’s belief in evolution and rationalism. Will is happily married to Stella, mother of three and valued friend of Cora’s. However Luke and Martha’s noses are both knocked out of joint when Cora forms an unlikely bond with Aldwinter’s vicar William Ransome. She wanted to stay in London where she was campaigning for better-quality housing for the poor and to this end, she takes advantage of the love of Luke’s wealthy friend Samuel, urging him to enlist politicians to back her cause. The equally doting Martha resents sharing Cora with the Aldwinter locals. Despite banning occult societies and making the casting of horoscopes illegal, Hitler regularly hired a physician from Munich who claimed his pendulum gave him the power to sense the presence of Jews. In Germany astrologer Wilhelm Wulff was seconded to a naval institute where they used pendulums to locate Allied submarines. On the back of this, the magazine sowed uncertainty. De Wohl established its credibility by incorporating the dates of known sinkings and backdating his predictions.

The latter was once hired by Sefton Delmer, a former chief foreign correspondent of the Daily Express who became a naval intelligence officer during the war, to launch a bogus astrological magazine aimed at U-boat crews. The cast of characters includes Aleister Crowley, an occultist who rejoiced in his title of the “wickedest man in the world”, Mansfield Cumming, a head of MI5 who discomfited colleagues at meetings by stabbing himself in his wooden leg and Louis de Wohl, an astrologer who described himself as The Modern Nostradamus.

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