The Space Between Time

Charlie Laidlaw

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth...

Emma Maria Rossini appears to be the luckiest girl in the world. She's the daughter of a beautiful and loving mother, and her father is one of the most famous film actors of his generation. She's also the granddaughter of a rather eccentric and obscure Italian astrophysicist.

But as her seemingly charmed life begins to unravel, and Emma experiences love and tragedy, she ultimately finds solace in her once-derided grandfather's Theorem on the universe.

The Space Between Time is humorous and poignant and offers the metaphor that we are all connected, even to those we have loved and not quite lost.

About the Author:
Charlie Laidlaw was born in Paisley and is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He has been a national newspaper journalist and worked in defence intelligence. He now runs his own marketing consultancy in East Lothian. He is married with two grown-up children.

Review by Nigel (211120) Rating (9/10)

Review by Nigel
Book Source: Author
Rating 9/10
Once again Charlie Laidlaw has surprised me with a moving and subtly funny story of a girl growing to be a woman and coming to terms with life and her place in the world.

The story follows Emma, daughter to a world famous film star father and a beautiful but unassuming mother. Having moved to North Berwick from Edinburgh, Emma attends the local school to have a ‘normal’ upbringing but she can’t avoid the attention that being the daughter of a famous film star brings. With her father away most of her life, the impact on both her and her mother is profound, particularly as tabloid rumours of infidelity abound.

The book is split into two main parts. In the first we follow Emma as she grows up, witnessing the relationship between her mother and her father deteriorate, while she does not quite understand the grown-up situations; some of the observations and circumstances are very funny.

In the second Emma has just graduated from university with a degree in Media and Communications, having changed her name to Maria to disassociate herself from her father and her past. She manages to get a job as a reporter for The Scotsman newspaper and we follow her as she slides towards a nervous breakdown, in turn seeing her current life and flashbacks filling the intervening years.

Throughout the narrative we have the story of her grandfather and his theorem on dark matter and dark energy – I liked the cosmological formulae used as chapter titles although I’m pretty sure the equivalencies are not correct.

The Space Between Time shows the impact of childhood events on the adult in a quite extreme way and for a long time Emma’s life is defined by her father - this is the story of her finding herself.

The author teaches creative writing and this is clearly evident for the quality of the prose. Simply put, this is another very enjoyable book from an exceptionally talented author.
Nigel (21st November 2020)