Jaine Blackman gets swept away in a compelling story of a woman’s life and times

Fans of Any Human Heart, the best-seller by William Boyd which was adapted for television, are likely to be delighted by his latest novel Sweet Caress.

While the former followed Logan Mountstuart’s richly interesting life, the latter takes a similar tack with a sweeping panorama of the 20th century seen through the life and loves of the spirited Amory Clay.

The central characters may be made-up but their backdrops are real events.

Well-known non-fictional people also make an appearance.

Born in 1908, Amory becomes interested in photography with the gift of a camera from her society photographer uncle Greville.

It sets her on a path which takes her to the decadent Berlin of the late 1920s, New York of the 1930s, the Blackshirt riots in London, France in the Second World War – where she becomes one of the first women war photographers – and, after a time of domesticity, to Vietnam.

Her story – in the form of her 1977 journal, detailing life in an isolated cottage on a Hebridean island and interspersed with flashbacks from her younger days – brings the history of the past century alive in a vivid and gripping manner, full of humanity.

The novel is given further interest with photographs, supposedly taken by Amory.

Boyd, who attended Jesus College, Oxford, was also a lecturer in English at St Hilda’s College from 1980 to 1983 and it was while he was there that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa, was published.

His books are known for their intelligence and wit and Sweet Caress is a worthy addition to the catalogue.

Sweet Caress by William Boyd, Bloomsbury, £18.99 hardback Tuesday, September 15 William Boyd will be discussing his writing at St Aldate’s Church, Oxford, on Tuesday. £6/£4, 7pm.

Call 01865 790212 or visit waterstones.com for more details.