Loving Mephistopheles / Saunders

A strange mixture here, but strangely beguiling- with echoes of J K Rowling and Angela Carter, and guest appearances by the likes of Max Beerbohm and Ezra Pound. We begin in Edwardian London. Jenny is a gutter-bred beauty making a living as a singer in the music halls when she meets the love of her life, the mysterious Leo. Through him, she sells her soul in exchange for eternal youth, and the two proceed to blaze a trail through the history of the 20th century. Great fun – utterly gripping if you just want the story, enormously clever if you appreciate erudition.