The Reading Corner, July 2022
We are very happy to welcome Kelly Robson to The Reading Corner to discuss her upcoming release “High Times in the Low Parliament”, out August 9th!
Join Lana Baker, the best scribe in Aldgate, on delightfully warm and rich cavort through evocative Georgian London into the heart of Parliament, as danger creeps ever closer.
Warm-hearted and sharp-witted Anglander Lana is sent to Low Parliament to transcribe their debates. However, in the case of a hung parliament, the chambers will flood, and the country will return to war.
With the help of feisty fairy Bugbite, beautiful dancer cum deputy Eloquentia de la Barre, and vision-inducing hallucinogens, Lana must work against time to ensure a resolution to the never-ending parliamentary discourses, and save the inhabitants from a horrific death by rising tide.
Flirtatious and fantastical, the adventures of spirited Lana and her partners will take you on a magical journey through a politically driven modern day fairy-tale.
Hi Kelly! Firstly, thank you so much for your time, and for this fantastic novel! I absolutely lovedreading High Times in Low Parliament and fell in love with the fantastic Lana from page one.
Thanks so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed my book.
Lana’s assertion of her time in Parliament as “Just petty squabbling, like children fighting over cake”, could be read as a parallel to Parliament in modern-day Britain, and indeed politics around the world. How much was your description of Parliament in the novel influenced by the current political states in Britain and globally?
Like many people, I’ve been struck by the polarization of politics and rejection of compromise that has reared up over the last — shall we say — thirty or forty years. Brexit was top of my mind while writing High Times in the Low Parliament, but we see polarization everywhere. I wonder if it’s a reaction to increasing complexity and fast rate of change? Subconsciously, maybe people want to slow down change, and having political and social systems stuck in a constant tug of war is a great way to bog it down. >> Continue Reading
