This book is excellently put together, as you might expect - but deeply disturbing and macabre.

Pagford sounds like a lovely place, and I was looking forward to a book detailing a sleepy, English, village and the twee goings-on there. I wasn't, though, expecting child rape, drug addiction, mental illness, domestic abuse and human neglect on such a large scale.

Very few of the characters end up being likeable in any way - with the possible exception of the dead Barry Fairbrother. As the book continued, I was wondering what it says about JK Rowling's mind that she has so few nice things to say about human beings. There isn't a hero of the piece; all end up being villains in some way or other.

I found this book depressing and sad to read - possibly because it is a pretty lifelike representation of what life is like in 2012 Britain, but also because, like others, I was expecting it to be a Potter-esque fairy-tale. It is no such thing.