This collection includes:
The Home Crowd Advantage, The Domestic, The Cockpit,The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny, King of The Rats, A Rare Book of Cunning Device, A Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Favourite Uncle, Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List, Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby, Moments One -Three

I discovered The Rivers of London series in 2013 and read the first four books pretty much one after another. Since then, I’ve pounced on each book as it’s come out and rarely been disappointed. It’s been a year now since I finished the tenth Rivers of London novel, ‘Stone and Sky’ so, in need of a Rivers of London fix and with no new novel on the horizon, I picked up ‘Tales From the Folly’ to sate my hunger for more of the series.

I’m glad I did. It made me smile. It reminded me of all the light-hearted things that I enjoy in the series without entangling me in the threats and conflicts that Peter and the others have to cope with in the novels. 

‘Tales From The Folly’ is a collection of six Peter Grant short stories, five short stories with other members of the ensemble cast at their centre, and three ‘Moments’ which Ben Aaronovitch describes as vehicles for when “…you have an idea for something this is more of a mood than a story, something that will last a page or two and conjure an atmosphere.”

The first six stories were little day-in-the-life windows into Peter Grant’s world. They were mostly whimsical things, with Peter dealing with ’situations’ that involve a collision between the general public and magic. I was reminded of how much I enjoyed watching the Metropolitan Police trying to cope with having to call in a ‘specialist’ police officer who can do magic while not wanting to admit that magic exists.

I enjoyed the non-Peter Grant stories even more than the Peter Grant ones. They were playful, and they filled out my knowledge of some favourite characters. The story in the collection that I enjoyed most was ‘Favourite Uncle ’, which focused on Peter’s talented young cousin, Abigail Kamara. ‘What Abigail Did That Summer’ is my favourite Rivers of London book, so I found it fascinating to see how Ben Aaronovitch was thinking about her three years earlier when ‘Favourite Uncle’ was first published. 

I enjoyed the ‘Back Stage Pass’ feeling that Ben Aaronovitch’s introduction to each story generated. I wasn’t sure the ‘Moments’ would work, but they brought me the same sort of pleasure I get from seeing an artist’s pencil sketches made in preparation for a fresco or oil painting.