Gaveston Book

Stephanie Merritt pitches the two very different worlds of the populist mass media and the dusty old halls of academia on a collision course in her highly readable debut novel, Gaveston. Media magnate Sir Edward Hamilton Harvey decides, apparently on a whim, to invest in a multi-million pound privatised media faculty at one of England's oldest and most respected universities. While this presents various dilemmas for many of those already employed in enlightening St Dunstan's finest to the joys of the Liberal Arts, it has a particular resonance for research student Gabrielle Harvey. Sir Edward's niece, Gaby has spent the past six years or so leading a cloistered existence far removed from her uncle's media spotlight. His sudden intrusion into her decidedly untrendy world is most definitely not welcomed. Less unwelcome still in her quiet bookish life is the charismatic yet enigmatic Dr Piers Gaveston. Installed by her uncle to head the new faculty, with little, if any, recourse to the usual channels of such appointments, the narcissistic Dr Gaveston, who seems to have materialised from nowhere, has a major impact of one kind or another on everyone he meets. Before long, and in spite of herself, Gaby is hooked. But what exactly is Gaveston's personal motivation? And what precisely is the nature of this breathtakingly good-looking man's relationship with Sir Edward? And why does Gaby's oldest friend (who happens to be chief political correspondent for one of Sir Edward's daily newspaper rivals) seem to harbour a pathological hatred for him? Gaveston is a sparkling first novel--a fun read with lots of clever extras. Via the lovely Gaby, who's struggling to complete her doctorate on Arthurian myth, the author throws in many a historical and literary reference guaranteed to appeal to those who prefer not to sleepwalk through their reading material. (The original Piers Gaveston was a close friend of Edward II--a man with rather more influence on the King than his bishops thought healthy). Merritt has written a smart satire on the world of the mass media, the increasingly interwoven worlds of popular and traditional culture, the hypocrisy of the rich and powerful and of the public's insatiable obsession with schadenfreude. At its heart, however, Gaveston is about something far more fundamental to us all, rich or poor, powerful or not. It is about human relationships, trust and forgiveness, and learning to be tolerant of the human ability to err. --Carey GreenRead More