by Nicholas Cockayne

Created on: January 28, 2008

'Neverwhere' by Neil Gaiman is one of those rarest of books, a book that was originally a television series before making the leap to the printed page. It was born of Gaiman's enthusiasm for the story he had to tell: when he realised that he could not cram everything he wanted to into the television series, he choose to create the book to tell the story that he wanted to tell. It is lucky for readers that he did, for 'Neverwhere' is a unique tale that never ceases to entertain and turn the world you think you know on its head.

'Neverwhere' is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young Scot who moves to the big smoke of London. There he enjoys moderate success in his job, finds a fianc, and leads a pleasant if mundane kind of life. All this abruptly shattered when he finds a young girl bleeding on the pavement, and with one act of kindness Richard throws away the life he knew and rushes head first into a strange world of talking rats, eccentric hit men, monsters, monks, and all of it revolving around a sinister angel who lives far below the streets London. This is a tale of world behind our own, below it, a tale of people who have fallen through the cracks and know exactly why you need to 'Mind the Gap', a tale of London Below, of Neverwhere.

One of Gaiman's greatest talents is his ability to perfectly capture the atmosphere of a place, in this case London. Not only does he manage to make you feel that you too are in London as you read, but as he delves into the fantastical London Below, a fantastical world of what London could be, you never lose that feeling of 'place'. It does not matter whether Gaiman is describing Trafalgar Square, the deadly darkness of Knights Bridge, or a swamp full of monks below the city, all are perfectly realised and unmistakably London.

As will all Gaiman books, the characters who inhabit this vividly realised setting are perhaps the real attraction of the novel. From the likeable everyman Richard Mayhew to the endearing Door, from the dangerous but seductive rogue Marquis de Carabas to the lithe Hunter; each and every character comes with a sense of history and detail which lends them such an air of realism that when the novel ends you feel as though you are losing real people that you have known and loved. Even the sinister, contemptible, and vile Mister Croup and Mister Vandemar are so memorable that you will miss them when you finish reading.

Like all Gaiman books the plot is fairly fast paced, taking you through the windings and passages

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