Playing Beatie Bow
by Ruth Park (Thomas Nelson, 1980); audiobook read by Kate Hood (Bolinda, 2012)
Ruth Park mixes time displacement with coming-of-age in a classic of Australian literature. 14-year-old Abigail Kirk, having fought with her mother, finds herself transported back to Sydney of 1873. Amidst the historical realism unfolds a beautifully told tale of hardship and self-discovery.
Night Watch
by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2002); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2002)
Night Watch is one of Pratchett’s least funny Discworld novels, in the best possible way. The gallows humour remains but the story — a poignant time travel paradox that sees Sam Vimes mentor his younger self through a bloody revolution — is more focussed.
Assassins from Tomorrow
by Peter Heath (Lancer, 1967)
Published four years after Kennedy’s assassination, this pulp novel takes what might have been an intriguing premise and treats it with sufficient blandness to turn slush rancid. What worked in Heath’s head leaves the reader no dignified option but to give up.
Alcatraz, Season 1
(Fox, 2012)
Somewhat predictable (with stock characters; even the mysterious reveals were formulaic) but it would have been interesting to see if Alcatraz had a destination in mind for its well-acted then-and-now procession of fugitive, time-displaced inmates. Another cancelled programme carrying echoes of Brimstone.
Red Dwarf X
by Doug Naylor (Dave, 2012)
Although still somewhat an aging caricature of its earlier series, Red Dwarf X brings back the laughs through six cleverly constructed (if frivolous) episodes. ‘Lemons’, in which the Dwarfers misassemble a flat-pack anti-aging machine, consequently time-travelling and meeting Jesus, is a highlight.
Time and Time Again
by Ben Elton (Bantam, 2014)
An ex-soldier is sent back in time to prevent World War One. Elton’s focus is less on changing history, more on the contrast between today’s spoiled society and the boundless potential of yesteryear… until this perfectly paced paradox novel hits its straps.
A Rebel in Time
by Harry Harrison (Granada, 1983)
Nominally a paradox novel, A Rebel in Time was notable for bringing Harrison’s refreshingly liberal values to the field of adventure science fiction: a black army sergeant pursues a racist colonel back through time to the outbreak of the American Civil War.