The Ballad of Peckham Rye - Muriel Spark

I lived on Peckham Rye for a brief period back in the mid-90s, so this depiction of the area in the early 60s held a number of delights for me. The prose is as impeccable as always from the divine Spark, and it has a devilish plot combining sly humour with deceptively savage satire.

The use of repetition is a key stylistic device in this book, reminiscent of the same author's brilliant use of flash forwards in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.