Havoc
ISBN: 9781529434491
Description
Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding school on a remote part of the south English coast. Despite the eccentricities of her new Headmistress, who warns her of the dangers of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the bomb, St Anne's seems like a refuge to Ida. But all this is about to change. For a start, her new room-mate is the infamous Louise Adler, potential arsonist and hardened outcast.
Reviewed on 25th July 2026
I ordered this book many months ago and so by the time it arrived I'd entirely forgotten what it was that attracted me to it in the first place. My immediate reaction was surprise that it's not science fiction. I've no idea what had given me that impression... perhaps the cover from a distance looks like a spacecraft travelling through the void? But up close it's clearly a school child with interesting lighting.
Anyway, it's not that.
This is a 1980s boarding school story, and the tale of a new student who has arrived for the sixth form, a teacher who has been there for many years, and a frustrated doctor. There's also a feature of faxes, which helps with immersion into the 1980s.
What I also didn't expect is the humour. Although it's also a serious story with a lot of bad things happening, it's presented with humour, both in the characters and the narration. This stood out immediately with a really great section in chapter two which perfectly set my expectations for what was to come.
I enjoyed spending time with these characters, and gradually learning more about them and their backgrounds. Everything's presented very naturally, and the narrative flows perfectly. Just the right amount of revealed at each stage to tease the reader without having to spell every single thing out, and there's plenty to digest once it's all over.
Very happy to have found this.