Matters of time

The writer of a brilliant new time-travel novel has online fanatics to thank for indulging in her 'very silly thing' about polar exploration.

- MARK BROATCH

It started as a bit of fun to entertain friends during one of Britain's endless, unnerving lockdowns but Kaliane Bradley ended up with a debut novel. And what a debut. The Ministry of Time is a cracking time-travel story, a tender romance, a shrewd workplace comedy and a mystery with a couple of great twists - all delicately threaded with curly issues such as identity politics and climate change. Writers like Mark Haddon, Francis Spufford and Eleanor Catton are shouting its praises. Catton called it "outrageously brilliant". And even before it was published, it was snapped up to be made into a series for the BBC.

So how did she do it? Bradley notes that it's not the first novel she has written, just the first one she has had published. "I've only ever gone out looking for literary agent representation for one novel before this, but that went nowhere," she says with a laugh, which she does often during our video interview. "It was a terrible book. I'm glad it went nowhere." The version of the published book is, she thinks, the ninth draft, having passed under the discerning eyes of editors and her agent. They helped her with the storytelling, to align characters, and to trim her oftenarresting metaphors and similes. "I over-salt my food," she says.

Bradley has won several awards for stories, including the 2022 VS Pritchett Short Story Prize for Doggerland. Overnight successes are seldom overnight. "Also, I'm not, like, a 22-year-old debut." She is 35.