FROM 17th Century Denmark to the New Zealand Gold rush of the mid 19th Century, Rose Tremain, it seems, can write about anything, and she always manages to create a detailed and authentic world for her characters and their quests.

This time it's the turn of Lev, a naiive Eastern European migrant worker who has travelled to England to help pay for a better life for his mother and daughter. His chance encounters with the good, the bad and the ugly in a London obsessed with celebrity, where he toils hard for scant wages, are both convincing and poignant.

Tremain is a star.