The Fraud by Zadie Smith

The Fraud by Zadie Smith was the final book I bought with my Christmas Waterstones voucher. I’ve read a few Zadie Smith books and always enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to reading this one.

(I read her seminal debut novel, White Teeth, in 2001 when I was in hospital with stomach pains during my first pregnancy. It blew me away. I still remember lines from it to this day. I’d never read anything like it before. At that time, all I read was 20-something PR girl in London meets good looking man, eventually realises he’s not very nice and falls in love with the boy next door she’s known her entire life…)

The Fraud is Zadie Smith’s first historical novel and it is based on the lives of real people who lived in the 19th century. Mrs Eliza Touchet is cousin by marriage of the novelist William Harrison Ainsworth – a contemporary of Charles Dickens, whose most successful novel actually outsold Oliver Twist. Mrs Touchet is a young widow taken in by William as his housekeeper, friend and sometime lover. A highly intelligent woman, she attends William’s literary dinners with Dickens and others and goes to political meetings.

In the 1870s, William’s new young wife and his daughters become fascinated by the trial of the Tichborne Claimant. A man recently returned from Australia claims he is ‘Sir Roger’ and the rightful heir to a fortune. Accompanied in court every day by his Black servant, Andrew Bogle, as star witness, the whole of London is gripped by the case and fascinated by Bogle’s trustworthy, calm nature.

The Fraud follows the lives of Mrs Touchet and William from the 1830s until William’s eventual death. It also delves into Bogle’s life and the last days of slavery.

Written in the third person, but mainly following Mrs Touchet, The Fraud is an interesting and sometimes humorous read. But it definitely isn’t an easy read! If you’re interested in the lives of slaves in Jamaica or Victorian literary London (Charles Dickens really was a friend of Mrs Touchet!), I would recommend The Fraud. But if you’re looking for something fun and easy to read, I would give it a miss.