The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley – glimmers of magic
Steampunk meets historical fiction meets magical realism in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. It’s not a happy encounter.
Natasha Pulley’s debut novel is set primarily in 1880s London (with an occasional diversion to Japan), where Nathaniel Steepleton is a lowly telegraph clerk at the Home Office. In Oxford, Grace Carrow, the daughter of a titled family is studying physics at one of the city’s new colleges for women. The pair are drawn together by their encounters with the enigmatic figure of a master watchmaker who is able to predict the future.
This is a time of political unrest as an Irish republican movement embark on a bombing campaign targeting public buildings in the capital. They succeed in destroying Victoria railway station and part of Scotland Yard. Thaniel narrowly escapes one explosion because of an ear-piercing alarm from an exquisitely-made gold pocket watch that had been left on his bed during a break-in at his lodgings.
Curiosity about the watch leads Thaniel to the medieval buildings of Filigree Street and the mysterious Keito Mori, a high-born Japanese expatriate and mechanical genius The two become friends though Thaniel has a nagging feeling that Mori is somehow connected to the bombings.
Much of the narrative of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street revolves around this deepening friendship though the pace ramps up and moves more into an adventure-type plot once Grace Carrow comes on the scene. She has her own suspicions about Mori and misgivings about his increasing influence on Thaniel.
Neither element worked well for me. The ‘romance’ that supposedly develops between Thaniel and Grace wasn’t convincing and the plot thread about the identity of the bomb-maker became unnecessarily confusing.
The novel was much stronger when it was operating in the realm of historical fiction and focused on setting rather than plot.
Natasha Pulley had me hooked with her depiction of Victorian London; its burgeoning system of telegrams that bounce between government buildings and a rapidly expanding underground train system.
We also get to see a slice of the city that I never knew existed: a traditional Japanese village complete with tea house. I wasn’t sure whether this was a figment of Pulley’s imagination but a quick piece of research showed that there was indeed a village built in Knightsbridge to capitalise on the enthusiasm for all things Japanese during the 1870s. Also true was that Gilbert and Sullivan (who have a walk on part in the novel) visited the village as they were creating The Mikado.
It was when we stepped through the doors of Mori’s home at Filigree Street that we got the full effect of Natasha Pulley’s imagination. Mori’s workshop is a magical place full of electric lights that respond to movement and clockwork creations like Katsu, a mischievous octopus that loves to steal socks and climb up furniture legs.
Thaniel is dumbfounded by his first view of this workshop:
Across the wall beside him was a tall pendulum clock, its movement regulated by the jointed wings and knees of a golden locust. A mechanical model of the solar system spun in mid-air, floating on magnets, and up two steps in the tiered floor, little bronze birds sat perched on the edge of the desk. One of them hopped on to the microscope and tapped its beak hopefully on the brass fittings. Things glimmered and clicked everywhere.
I can appreciate how The Watchmaker of Filigree Street will wow many readers, particularly those who enjoy an element of fantasy blended with historical fiction. But I won’t be joining the fan club.
Fantasy isn’t my cup of tea but I can tolerate it in small doses as long as there is more to the book than fantasy for fantasy’s sake. I was on the look-out for that additional dimension here but it never materialised. The characters (with the exception of Katsu) didn’t engage my attention because I never really felt I got to know them or their motives. The plot became so confusing I wasn’t even sure by the end how it had been resolved. And the writing often tended to be stilted and convoluted – I had to read some sentences multiple times but still didn’t understand the point being made.
Though it had did have some components that were interesting, overall I thought The Watchmaker of Filigree Street tried to incorporate too many different elements and ended up being a tiresome mishmash.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley: Footnotes
Published by Bloomsbury in 2015, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street won a Betty Trask award in 2016 and featured in the Sunday Times bestseller list for many weeks during the summer of 2016. It was Natasha Pulley’s debut novel, researched in part while she lived in Tokyo for 18 months on a scholarship from the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation. A follow up novel, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, which was published in 2020, sees Thaniel and Keita Mori reunited in Tokyo.
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I don’t like fantasy or historical fiction much so I generally avoid steampunk – I just don’t see the point of impossible, imagined pasts. Especially as my reading of actual English C19th fiction is woefully deficient.
I tend to avoid it whenever possible too Bill – this was the book club choice and I was told the non realist element wasn’t a big thing. I was mis-sold the book – had I known in advance I would probably have skipped that month
I did not read this book, I listened to it on audible and it has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had in a long time. The language is beautiful – I don’t find it stilted at all and although not a fanstasy enthusiast, more history perhaps, the universe the author has created is so rich and warm and utterly visual that I regret having to leave it now that I have finished both books. Loved them both.
Hi Susanna, we read this for book club and there were certainly people who enjoyed it as much as you did.
I’ve had this in mind to read for a while but as I read your review I was struck by the number of elements in the mix. Individually, or in smaller combinations, I enjoy all of them but perhaps this is just too much of a melting pot. I’d still like to try The Bedlam Stacks though.
Some members of the book club thought the historical fiction/fantasy element worked very well. Others didn’t. The only way to find out I suppose is to read it!
I loved it and was happy to overlook its first novel shortcomings for the steampunky feel and magic. Her second novel, The Bedlam Stacks, set in South America, manages to make its magic, which isn’t steampunky, seem quite organic and is beautiful. If you dare to try another of hers, make it this one.
The steampunk element was fun so if that’s missing from Bedlam Stacks I doubt I’ll be hankering to read it Annabel. Quite a few members of our book club highly rated the Watchmaker so you were certainly not alone in your enjoyment,
‘Tiresome mishmash’ – I agree with that description! The novel couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.
Thanks for confirming that I wasn’t alone in thinking it was trying too hard.
Although I do enjoy fantasy at times I’m highly resistant to steampunk. This one sounds like it has some redeeming features but not enough to really tempt me. So many other books . . . .
According to one of the members of our book club who does enjoy fantasy, the fantasy element in this book wasn’t particularly interesting so yes, it sounds like one you can skip
Oops. As you say, lots of elements which don’t seem to gel. I’m almost tempted to try it — I do like a bit of a literary challenge where ideas books are concerned — but I respect your judgement here as unlikely to be worth the effort.
Some reviews I’ve seen took the line that the novel raised issues about trust, fate and chance. But they weren’t strong enough to make much of an impact I didn’t think
Something about this kind of title puts me off, so I was unlikely to read it- but instinct was right!
My husband was very sniffy about the title when he saw my copy lying about. Must admit it didn’t do much for me either but it was a book club choice – otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered
Oh dear – not for me, I suspect. Thank you for reading it so I don’t have to!
No definitely not one for you. Left to choose I would have given it a miss but it was a book club selection so had to give it a go
Agree with your assessment! This joins a list of period novels I expected to enjoy but didn’t, including Sorcerer to the Crown, The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, and The Essex Serpent. I’m not allergic to fantasy at all, but confusing mishmash is dreadful, and far too common in my recent experience. Yet I keep getting tempted to try again, hoping for another Susanna Clarke …
The only one of those I’ve heard of is the Essex Serpent which was hard to miss in fact because of the amount of attention it got at the time it was published. But it just never appealed.