I thoroughly enjoyed Rule Britannia, the first of a series of cracking historical thrillers set in the 1930s. It features an oddball couple of adventurers, Ernest Drabble, a Cambridge historian and mountaineer, and his old schoolfriend, Percival Harris, who is a Fleet Street journalist. Drabble is the academic and brilliant leader of the two partners and Harris the louche and indiscreet  sidekick. I’ll admit now that I have read all 3 books in the series and the high quality of Rule Britannia is maintained throughout.

The books are a very engaging mix of John Buchan and PG Wodehouse. There is plenty of helter-skelter action but this is leavened by much humour and wit. The story takes place in 1936 in the run up to the abdication of Edward VIII and the imaginative and unusual plot revolves around the severed head of Oliver Cromwell. If you don’t know, Cromwell suffered the unlikely indignity of being executed two years after his death by the restored Charles II. His corpse was hung drawn and quartered and his severed head put on a spike outside Westminster Hall. It was dislodged from its position in a storm in 1685, and then disappeared into private hands until 1960 when it is believed to have been buried under the Chapel floor of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, his alma mater.

In 1936, the head’s location is unknown, and Rule Britannia kicks off with Drabble travelling to Cornwall to verify whether a head in the possession of a local doctor is in fact Cromwell’s. He arrives there only to find the doctor dead, a telegram in his hand from Winston Churchill requesting the head be brought to London. The distraught doctor’s secretary, Kate Honeyland, produces a box with what is presumed to be the head.

Returning to London with head and secretary in tow, Drabble finds that some very nasty people want to gain possession of the head. There is a sinister fascist conspiracy afoot and he, Harris and Miss Honeyland find themselves battling some very dangerous and slippery customers. There are many twists and turns before an exciting denouement is reached.

I read this book very quickly. There is plenty of action, which the author handles very well. The tenor of the book is light but there is murder, torture and violence which the author deals with without  any jarring notes.

The book is set in a very interesting time in British history, and I liked the portrayal of the background and the period detail. Clearly the author carried out a good deal of historical research but the depth of his knowledge does not weigh on the story, as is often the case with historical fiction.

The two main protagonists, Drabble and Harris are very entertaining and I laughed a lot at their sparring.  Their characters develop nicely in the two subsequent novels in which they spread their wings to India and America. I now look forward to reading the fourth which I understand is on the way. Rule Britannia is amusing, thrilling and a highly entertaining read.

Mark Ellis is a novelist and the author of Dead in the Water.