The Ministry of Time
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Description
A civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering 'expats' from across history to test whether time-travel is feasible. Her role is to work as a 'bridge': living with, supporting and monitoring expat '1847' - Commander Graham Gore, a former Victorian polar explorer. Gore, an adventurer by trade, soon adjusts to this bizarre new world of washing machines, feminism and Spotify; and during a long, sultry summer the pair move from awkwardness to friendship to something more.
Reviewed on 29th March 2025
The marketing for this book seemed to be absolutely everywhere over the past year, and the wait for the paperback much longer than usual, but now it's here and I've read it and found it very engaging.
It's the tale of a 'bridge' - a secret government employee tasked with looking after an 'expat' - someone removed from their own time and brought forward to the present. There are layers to the plot to peel back, and find out what is going on, and what exactly this book is about.
I think that's the only struggle the book has, a bit of a vaguery around whether it wants to be thriller, history, sci-fi, romance... and so it lands somewhere in between which to me made the second half less interesting than the first.
I'm intruiged though to see what Bradley comes up with next.