The protagonist Hugh Stanton is a grieving widow who takes some convincing to become a time-traveller but the grieving widow thing does feel a little overplayed and part way through the book I did feel like telling Hugh to get a grip of himself. The authors intelligence and talent as a writer really shows here however without his more absurd humour it does feel a little too serious.

The story moves between the past and present, the former being described in great detail - such that it almost feels like you are there. Of course anyone who has seen or read a time travel story knows that it's never as simple as that. There is a good story though, revolving around an ex-SAS soldier who is chosen to go back in time and prevent the first world war - the argument being that preventing the first world war would prevent the second and bring an era of peace our world hasn't known. Instead it's much more mainstream and feels diluted so as to appeal to the masses. Unfortunately it's largely devoid of both. I was hoping that Time and Time Again would perhaps be a satirical romp through time or at least with a thick vein of the authors humour running through it. Last year we had the stand-out example The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - we also saw the release of Jerry Cornelius: His Life and Times - by the legendary author Michael Moorcock.Īs such my expectation was high for this book, a time travel story with the infamous wit of Ben Elton. I like Time Travel novels, there have been some great examples fairly recently. The only novel I've read of his prior to Time and Time Again is Stark - an early example of modern environmental fiction and a book that feels a lot like the love-child of Douglas Adams and Grant Naylor. His humour is often satirical, off-the-wall and almost always makes me laugh.

I've loved most of the TV programs he's been involved in from the Young Ones and Blackadder to Blessed and the Thin Blue Line.

Ben elton book time and time again