Beware white women: a Dickensian masterpiece of modern Africa

Or I could simply say that when I got within 50 pages of the end of Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah I panicked that it would all soon be over and I'd have to say goodbye to its world and its characters, some of whom I'd come to love, some of whom I despised.
All the learning would come to end, the lessons I'd been taught about the food and fashions of east Africa, the history of Zanzibar, the culture of people far removed from me through distance but exactly the same as me, my friends and my family in their shames and ambitions, failings and braveries.
This is the first book Gurnah has written since he won the Nobel Prize. Be in no doubt, his talents remain undimmed. If anything this is his most affecting book, in terms of its emotional heft, and his most important given its ruthless dissection of colonialism and the hangover which remains for both Africans and Europeans.
Theft is intensely political, but its politics are almost invisible. It isn't hectoring. You aren't being lectured. You aren't even aware that history is being laid on the anatomy table.
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Image: Bloomsbury)
This is a book about family and friendships. Yet its message reaches right to the poisoned root of the relationship between Africa today and the Europe which exploited the continent for two centuries.
This is a book you want to stand up and applaud when you finish.
The comparison with Dickens is apt. Like Dickens, Gurnah's lead character is the classic 'orphaned boy'. Badar has no mother and father. He's raised by distant relatives who care little for him, then farmed out to another family as a servant.
I must tread carefully, for fear of ruining the plot, but we're in David Copperfield territory here, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby.
It feels somehow wrong to equate Gurnah with Dickens. To do so is almost the kind of inward-gazing colonial act he takes his scalpel to, but the comparisons are too strong to avoid.
Theft, like any Dickens novel, is driven relentlessly forward by character. You cannot resist the company of his creations. The story is addictive and page-turning. Again like Dickens. This blend of character and story is so heady it hides the very powerful, very political points the writer makes. Again like Dickens. Though Gurnah has a subtlety Dickens lacks.
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Midway through, Badar is falsely accused of theft. Initially, it seems this gives us the book's title. However, as the novel closes, we learn that the theft Gurnah is exploring isn't one of property or money. To understand the theft Gurnah is really investigating, we must turn to the white characters - specifically, and uncomfortably, white women. It's the action of white women who explain the metaphor of theft.
Again, I'll say no more, lest I ruin a moment in the book, which for white readers is deeply troubling but horribly and shamefully recognisable. After all, who are history's great thieves if not our colonial ancestors who stole the very land from under the feet of the peoples they invaded and ruled? Are we more like them even today than we care to acknowledge? Do we still have the thief's mind?
Like Dickens, Gurnah expertly dissects broken families. There's no family here not carrying some secret, some shame, some guilt. Children are abandoned, raised by relatives, shipped off. Parents disappear, sleep around, hurt their kids.
There's one scene of physical violence when a character we began by loving but come to loath harms their own baby in the most ghastly way. It's a moment of shocking horror in a novel that's otherwise tender, even when dealing with the pain of poverty and humiliation.
In essence, Theft tells the story of young and impoverished Badar, taken under the wing of the slightly older and much wealthier Karim. The pair set out to make their way in 1990s Tanzania as it juggles modernity and tradition: a nation trying to maintain its dignity amid the interference of western charity workers who use Africa to burnish their own fake sense of virtue.
They're nothing but modern missionaries, dressing the colonial mindset in the clothes of progressive liberalism. Much more harm is done than good, and those harms crowbar their way into the lives of Badar and Karim.
While Badar and Karim are the twin poles the book revolves around, the supporting cast is dominated by strong women characters, from Karim's feckless and selfish mother, to the modern but diffident Fauzia.
This isn't a book which simply turns white characters into monsters, though. Indeed, white characters cause harm through thoughtlessness, self-absorption and carelessness. Black characters can be just as unpleasant: vengeful, cruel, petty, intolerant.
Damage is inherited. Damaged parents create broken children, and it takes great courage to overcome this inheritance. The same is true of countries. How do they recover from the damage of colonialism? Do they inherit the sins of the coloniser?
What matters to Gurnah is the simple contents of a human soul. It's irrelevant if you're rich or poor, had good parents or bad, come from a country of colonisers or the colonised. It's the heart inside you which shapes your humanity.
Badar wonders to himself if white people come to Africa as they 'feel entitled to please themselves because in the end it was they who mattered'. The same is true of men in their behaviour towards women in this book, and parents towards their children.
Damaged people hurt others as they believe they are all that matters. In their pain, they cannot see the lives of others.
What Gurnah does is paint a picture of how empathy is the escape mechanism. If we can find that key within us we can save ourselves from the horror of history and the pain of family. In the end, if we're to be human, empathy is all we've got.

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BBC News

a day ago

• BBC News

The 12 best books of 2025 so far

From multigenerational family sagas to speculative dystopias – the very best fiction of the year so far. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie More than 10 years have passed since Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's acclaimed Americanah, so the arrival of her new novel is a big literary moment. Dream Count is built around interconnecting storylines and the friendship of three Nigerian women whose lives have not worked out as they had envisioned. Recounting the characters' hopes and struggles, the novel interweaves childhood and early-adult memories with the women's current lives. It is "worth the wait," says The Observer, and is like "four novels for the price of one, each of them powered by the simple but evergreen thrill of time spent in the company of flesh and blood characters lavishly imagined in the round." The book explores "big themes" according to the New Statesman – masculinity, race, colonialism, power. "A complex, multi-layered beauty of a book. Extraordinary. " (LB) We Do Not Part by Han Kang We Do Not Part was released in English translation in February, although it was originally published in Han Kang's native South Korea in 2021, and therefore helped contribute to the body of work that won her the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature. Drawing comparisons with her Booker Prize-winning bestseller, The Vegetarian, and similarly blurring the lines between dreams and reality, We Do Not Part explores the relationship between two women, Kyungha and Inseon, while uncovering a violent and forgotten chapter in Korean history. The LA Times calls We Do Not Part: "exquisite and profoundly disquieting". It writes of Han Kang: "her singular ability to find connections between body and soul and to experiment with form and style, are what makes her one of the world's most important writers." (RL) Stag Dance by Torrey Peters The follow-up to Torrey Peters' critically acclaimed debut Detransition, Baby is a collection of tales, each with an intriguing premise, ranging in genre from romantic to dystopian to historical. In The Masker, a young party-goer on a hedonistic Las Vegas weekend must choose between two guides, a mystery man or a veteran trans woman; in The Chaser an illicit boarding-school romance surfaces; in the titular Stag Dance a group of lumberjacks in the 19th Century, working deep in the forest, plan a winter dance – with some of the men volunteering to attend as women. The Chicago Review of Books compares the collection favourably to Peters' debut, describing the stories as "seductive, dazzling, and history-making once again". The Guardian is similarly effusive: "The pieces are meticulously crafted; especially Stag Dance, with its deft pacing and almost operatic denouement." The writing is "mischievous rather than sanctimonious", it adds, and "it is clear she is having a great deal of fun". (LB) Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah "A quietly powerful demonstration of storytelling mastery" writes The Observer of Theft, the 11th novel from the 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Set against the backdrop of postcolonial East Africa, situated between Zanzibar and Dar-Es Salaam, Tanzania, Theft is a coming-of-age tale exploring the inner lives of three teenagers – Karim, Badar and Fauzia – who bond despite growing up in very different circumstances. "A tightly focussed, beautifully controlled examination of friendship and betrayal," writes The Economist, while The Wall Street Journal praises Gurnah's "restraint", adding: "he builds his fictional worlds cumulatively, giving equal regard to the 'many things' that make up experience. There are no single truths in this steady, mature novel, which may be why it feels so true as a whole." (RL) Universality by Natasha Brown Natasha Brown's celebrated 2021 debut, Assembly, was a short, precise novel and a dissection of class and race that was shortlisted for several awards. In her follow-up she examines how identity politics is cynically deployed, satirising on the way cancel culture and the worlds of publishing and journalism. The story begins with a dubious article attempting to unravel a mystery involving an illegal rave, a missing gold bar and a banker. Soon the novel moves on to the fallout from the exposé, and the knock-on effect of the people affected by the crime. "It's all enormous, nasty fun," says the Literary Review. "Infidelity, exploitation and hatred abound… Brown's main purpose is to satirise and skewer the socio-economic forces that have shaped life in the UK since the late 2010s." Universality is "very funny", says the New Statesman. "Brown is an astute political observer, easily dismembering cancel culture and our media circus." (LB) The Names by Florence Knapp Knapp's debut novel begins in 1987, as Cora Atkin is pondering three different names for her newborn baby boy: Gordon, after her abusive doctor husband; Bear, the choice of her older daughter, Maia; or her preference, Julian. With the premise that each potential name offers a unique destiny, the narrative splits therein, revisiting its characters at seven-year intervals in a manner that recalls Sliding Doors. And despite its dark subject matter, critics have praised The Names for its upbeat, uplifting effect. The Standard writes: "Knapp's deftly woven story is at once a big, bold experiment, a playful exercise in nominative determinism, a meditation on fate and a coming-of-age story", while The Washington Post calls the novel: "a profound, deeply compassionate examination of domestic abuse," which is "startlingly joyful and paced like a thriller". (RL) The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong Ocean Vuong's second novel The Emperor of Gladness: "may well be the first millennial Great American Novel", according to Art Review. It is: "perfectly tuned", and "as wide in scope as it is quiet and tender". It tells the story of Hai, a young gay man who has run away from home, and his coming of age in the rural northeast in Obama-era US. It also explores his friendship with Grazina, an elderly Lithuanian widow with dementia. Hai finds work in a fast-dining chain, and bonds with his mixed bag of new colleagues, who discover connection in their past hardships. The Emperor of Gladness is: "a fine-grained social panorama driven by the developing camaraderie of an ensemble cast bonded in precariousness and pain," says The Observer. (LB) Eden's Shore by Oisín Fagan "A tremendous romp of a tale", this brutal seafaring epic's protagonist is Angel Kelly, a late-18th-Century slaver headed to Brazil with the goal to found a utopian community; chaos ensues and he washes up on the shores of an unnamed Spanish colony. With grisly attention to detail, Fagan spares little in describing the violence of the slave trade with the blackest of humour and an experimental approach to form. "Eden's Shore is a rich and beautifully told tale of toxic adventurism" writes the TLS, while the Financial Times writes: "Alexander's capacious performance is made to encompass the visceral, physical experiences of the journey – disease, sex, seasickness, violence – and its more cerebral aspects, in which the politics, philosophy and idealistic utopianism of the day find expression." (RL) Dream State by Eric Puchner A multi-generational family saga, Dream State explores themes of love, betrayal, and the effects across generations of the choices we make. Beginning in 2004, the story is set in a rapidly warming, fictionalised version of Montana's Flathead Valley, with the lake at the valley's centre the nucleus of the story. Dream State traverses five decades, and: "gradually coalesces into a family history that feels monumental", says Lit Hub. The effect is: "hypnotically telescopic, a vision of people we come to know across decades. Puchner's manipulation of time is among his novel's most magical elements." His narration: "can slip from funny to harrowing as fast as young man can ski to his death". Oprah Winfrey selected Dream State as a book club pick, describing Puchner as a "master storyteller" and the book as: "an exquisite examination of the most important relationships we have in our lives". (LB) The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami Longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction, Lalami's fifth novel is a nightmarish speculative tale about the terrifying reaches of technology and surveillance. As Sara returns to LAX airport from a conference, she is stopped by the Risk Assessment Administration, who determine – using data from her dreams – that she is about to harm her husband. She's transferred to a retention centre to be monitored for 21 days, where she finds – along with other dreamers – that her journey back to her family becomes more and more out of reach. "A scarily credible vision," The Spectator writes of The Dream Hotel, continuing that it: "taps deftly into the terrors of our times", while The Economist calls it: "a riveting tale of the risks of surrendering privacy for convenience". (RL) Confessions by Catherine Airey The debut from new voice Catherine Airey has been widely praised. Confessions traces the trajectories of three generations of women as they experience the weight of the past in all its complexity. In 2001, newly orphaned by 9/11, New Yorker Cora Brady, on the cusp of adulthood, is offered a new life in Ireland – where her parents grew up – by an estranged aunt. "The narrative zips along with the crackling intelligence of Donna Tartt, full of twists and zips, and genuine surprises," says the Irish Independent. "Confessions is an astonishing and remarkable novel and truly deserving of all the accolades coming its way." The Guardian says: "The book is a saga: its serious pleasures are its expansiveness and range, and Airey's rare, particular instinct for scenes or worlds that are interesting to be with, from 1970s New York art kids to early female gamers." Confessions, it concludes, is "a cool, bold image of female pain and liberation". (LB) Flesh by David Szalay Szalay's most celebrated work, All That Man Is, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016, explored 21st-Century manhood through the lives of nine different men. One man's journey from teen to adulthood is the subject of Flesh. We first meet 15-year-old István in Hungary where he lives with his mother, then as he begins a relationship with a much older woman that has tragic consequences, joins the army and then rises to the top of London society. With Flesh, Szalay employs an even more pared-down version of his spare, minimalist prose to explore the meaning of a life. "Flesh is about more than just the things that go unsaid…" writes the Guardian, "it is also about what is fundamentally unsayable, the ineffable things that sit at the centre of every life, hovering beyond the reach of language." The Observer praises Flesh's: "searing insight into the way we live now" calling it: "a masterpiece". (RL) -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.

Times

4 days ago

• Times

Genevieve Chenneour: ‘He threatened to stab me. I was terrified'

It was a Saturday morning in February when Genevieve Chenneour stepped into Joe & the Juice on Kensington High Street in London after having a facial nearby. The Bridgerton actress, 27, was with her boyfriend at the time, Carlo Kureishi, 30, the son of the writer Hanif Kureishi, and her black maltipoo, Ralph. She ordered an oat flat white and took a seat to wait for it. While waiting for her coffee she noticed two men 'pacing back and forth in my peripheral vision'. Just before one of the men — dressed in a black tracksuit and baseball cap — swiped her phone from the table beside her, Chenneour felt 'a black cloud, a dark feeling, coming over me' and sensed that something bad was about to happen. Realising her phone was gone, Chenneour lunged at him instantly. 'It was complete instinct,' she says. 'I wouldn't advocate for anyone doing something that would put them at risk.' The thief, 18-year-old Zacariah Boulares, was a prolific offender with 12 prior convictions, including for threatening to behead the Welsh singer Aled Jones with a 20in machete in July 2023. He had served just 14 months of a 24-month sentence for that crime. CCTV footage of the incident went viral when it was released last week after the case went to court not only because it captured Chenneour hurling herself at her assailant in a fearless — and triumphant — attempt to retrieve her phone, but because she was an actress from Netflix's glossy Regency drama. Giving her first newspaper interview since making headlines, she describes the past week as 'surreal'. Her social media follower count has ratcheted up. 'Every time I go on Instagram I have a hundred more followers. Overnight another thousand.' Women have been particularly supportive. 'I think it's been gratifying for them to watch the footage,' she says. 'Maybe because I got to live out a fantasy. We've all walked down the street in London thinking, what would I do if someone stole my phone?' • This woman fought off her muggers. Could (and should) you? Early reports referred to an unidentified male companion at the scene, but it was Kureishi who charged at the thief as Chenneour sprang into action. 'The footage everyone has seen was actually the tamest part,' she says. 'I got on his back while [Kureishi] was on the floor holding him down. Then he threatened to stab me, and I thought I was going to be killed. I was terrified.' She was struck on the head and briefly lost consciousness. 'My doctor later confirmed I had a concussion. I had dizzy spells for weeks afterwards and I was terrified of going out alone. I still am.' Kureishi, fortunately, was uninjured. Onlookers in the café were stunned. Staff called the police immediately and locked the doors, preventing Boulares from escaping — until someone mistakenly signalled that officers had arrived when they hadn't. Chenneour and Kureishi let him go. He fled but was later arrested. He has since pleaded guilty to theft and assault and is due to be sentenced next month. 'He needs to go to prison and he needs psychological care,' she says. 'If criminals are not rehabilitated properly they'll likely commit more — maybe worse — crimes.' Two weeks after the incident she was due to attend the Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles, where Bridgerton had been nominated for best ensemble. Chenneour plays the sharp-tongued society gossip Clara Livingston. 'I thought I wouldn't be able to go, which would have been devastating. I'm so glad I was able to make it, but I was still very shaken when I was out there.' She remains unsettled. 'Like most women I was already hypervigilant of men in public spaces,' she says. 'Now it's even worse. Festivals this summer are off the table. I don't want to be around a load of men, in minimal clothing.' She's speaking to me via Zoom from her mother's home in Portsmouth. She's recently left west London — her base for seven years — after the end of her three-year relationship with Kureishi. 'After the phone incident and the break-up I just hit rock bottom,' she says. She left with a few personal belongings and custody of Ralph. 'Maybe this all has to happen so I can start afresh,' she adds. 'It's been a major shock for me — and terrifying — but now I can prioritise my career, myself and my friends.' Her reaction that day may not have surprised those who know her. Before acting, Chenneour was one of Britain's most promising young athletes: a teenage soloist on Team GB's synchronised swimming team and later a trained boxer. Years of discipline had embedded in her the instinct to fight. Chenneour was born in North Yorkshire to the British Army officer Tim Randall and the teacher Alice Chenneour, though she was raised mainly in Oxfordshire, where her father worked as a programme officer at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham. She has a twin sister, Fleur — a former Team GB rhythmic gymnast turned model — and three brothers, all engineers. She and Fleur featured in ITV's 2015 documentary The Secret Life of Twins. 'We are very similar, obviously, and have had very similar experiences, but we are also completely different,' she says. 'I'm more bohemian. Our lives are taking different paths now. We're not that close.' • Bridgerton actress fights off phone thief 'who threatened to stab her' Her childhood was a whirl of training: ballet from three, gymnastics at eight, singing and synchronised swimming by ten. Was it a happy time? 'There are two answers to that,' she says. 'The one I'd give my therapist, and one I'd share publicly. Let's just say I've always enjoyed being busy, and I'm naturally very driven. I was also very isolated. It was hard to keep friends because I moved around so much. There was trauma I've had to work through.' Training for synchronised swimming meant waking up every morning at 5am to practise before school and then again in the evening. At 15, Chenneour was selected to join the Great Britain artistic swimming team. She left school to focus on it full-time: training up to ten hours a day, six days a week. She studied for her GCSEs via remote learning and 'basically being autodidactic'. She was soon competing on the world stage as a soloist, member of the duet team and group. At the Europeans in 2014 she was the youngest competitor. 'I was really proud of everything I achieved,' she says, 'but it was also full-on. I didn't get to have a normal teenage life, which was hard at times.' At 17 she was awarded an Olympic scholarship for Rio 2016. But just a few months before the Games she tore the cartilage in her left hip. Surgery was unavoidable. Her Olympic dream was over. 'When they told me I couldn't go I burst into tears,' she says. 'I was broken. I was exhausted. I had given my life to this sport.' She describes 'killing a part of myself' with Team GB. 'I remember being shamed by coaching staff for my body shape, walk, posture and size,' she says. She is 5ft 9in. At her lightest — 7st — she was extremely underweight. She lost her period and was told by her female sports doctor to induce bleeding with a contraceptive pill. She complied. After her injury she says she received no communication from British Swimming. 'I never heard a word after that. Nothing. I sent them an email saying, 'I'm really trying to get better.' They may have replied — but no condolences, no support. I felt totally discarded.' She has since submitted written evidence to a British Swimming review of historical safeguarding cases and is separately pursuing a civil case against them. She is unable to discuss details while proceedings are under way. Recovery was slow. She was in a wheelchair for a few weeks, then on crutches for a month, and took her A-levels at home while on pain medication. 'I did terribly, even though I'd been predicted A*s,' she says. 'Usually in those circumstances they give you your predicted grade. I didn't get that option.' Rebuilding her identity after elite sport was hard. 'I don't think any amount of success is ever going to make me feel like I belong as much as I did then,' she says. 'So many athletes who retire struggle with that. The industry needs to be much better at supporting them.'What should that support look like? 'Government-backed schemes for funded athletes where they put money aside for their life after sport. They should provide life coaching too.' Chenneour was fortunate to discover new passions. First, pistol shooting — she went on to make the England Pistol Talent squad — then boxing. During pistol training she met someone who coached actors in firearm use and soon began working as a stunt performer. She played an armed soldier in The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron, and later doubled for Ella Purnell in the horror comedy The Scurry, motorcycling down a rocky mountain. Alongside her stunt work, Chenneour studied. She enrolled in a sports science course at Oxford Brookes, for which she spent over 150 hours assisting on an NHS stroke ward. 'That was very humbling,' she says. 'Everyone should have to do something like that. It makes you understand how precious life is.' After that, she studied physiotherapy at London South Bank, but soon struggled with the lack of creative outlet. A lecturer — whose sons attended Rada — encouraged her to consider acting. 'I'd never thought about becoming an actor,' she says. 'I wasn't financially supported and I didn't know people in the industry. I thought acting was for children who had rich parents.' She withdrew from her degree and returned home. In 2021 she changed her surname, Randall, to her mother's — a way to formalise her shift from athlete to actress. 'I've always felt especially close to my mum anyway, so this was a nice way to honour that,' she says. Months later she landed a role in Britannia, Jez Butterworth's fantasy drama. She played an acolyte opposite Sophie Okonedo and David Morrissey. It involved extensive nudity. 'I took the role because I thought it would be an incredible opportunity to learn how to navigate those sorts of scenes,' she says. Okonedo, she adds, was a great role model. 'In one scene I had to be topless. Sophie made sure I was covered up again when the cameras stopped rolling.' There was also an intimacy co-ordinator on set. 'To not have one nowadays is not really on.' Chenneour is unfazed by performing nude, largely because of her sporting background. 'I don't care what people think of my body because it is capable of amazing things as an athlete,' she says. Her mother's motto resonates: 'If you've got it, flaunt it — so long as you're safe.' Last year she joined series three of Bridgerton after attending a workshop and getting herself in front of the casting director. 'All my success and everything I've ever achieved is down to me,' she says. 'Not who my parents are, which is so often the case in this industry.' Beyond acting she has starred in music videos for the Brit-nominated Calum Scott and the British rapper Fredo, and modelled for Adidas, M&S and Lululemon. She's currently the face of campaigns for Trip drinks and Oral B. But fashion, she says, can be ruthless. • How accurate is the sex in Bridgerton? From al fresco romps to body hair She recalls being filmed without her consent while changing, and a luxury fashion house calling her 'fat' before leaving her forgotten — naked — in a fitting room. 'At the time I couldn't do anything about it,' she says. 'In modelling, unless you're a name, you're completely replaceable. I remember struggling a lot with body image after that.' These days, she focuses on health over aesthetics: eating intuitively, avoiding refined sugar and only drinking alcohol on special occasions. She notes that social media influence increasingly trumps experience in modelling and acting. 'Even with a small role — if there's an actor who's trained, and then someone with two million followers, who's going to bring in more money?' Chenneour is only just getting started. She was passed over for a role in the latest Mission: Impossible film but she's not deterred. She'd love to play a 'powerful, complex' Bond girl. She has plans beyond acting too: she publishes candid essays on her Substack, The Naked Pages, about navigating life as a young woman, and wants one day to write a book. 'Because of how I look and sound, people might assume I come from a rich family –– that everything's been handed to me,' she says. 'But it couldn't be further from the truth. 'If I'd had an easy life, maybe I wouldn't have the trauma I do, but I also wouldn't have grit. Everything I've achieved — even fighting the man who stole my phone — has come from that grit. And I wouldn't change that for anything in the world.' Hair and make-up Amanda Clarke from Joy Goodman Agency Stylist Victoria Binns

Metro

4 days ago

• Metro

Netflix drops every episode of 'suspense-filled' period drama with Line of Duty

Netflix has added two seasons of a period drama starring Line of Duty's Gina McKee, with heaps of praise from viewers who have already watched all 10 episodes. The Forsyte Saga will be catnip for fans of Downton Abbey, with a similar time period and even premise, as the show chronicles the lives of three generations of the wealthy Forsyte family. Based on Nobel Prize winner John Galsworthy's novel, the show is a sweeping portrait of the well-off British family in 1880s London, running up to 1920. This Bafta-winning adaptation – which is now available in its entirety to stream on Netflix – was originally released in 2002 on ITV, with a cast including Wolf Hall's Damian Lewis as well as Gina McKee. The novel had previously been adapted for TV by the BBC in 1967 and was watched by audiences of up to 18 million – in the heyday of terrestrial TV. It is widely considered to be the first modern costume drama. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. Lewis stars in the drama as Soames Forsyte – an uptight man in an evolving London – who is married to Gina McKee's chilly character Irene, who quite openly marries for money and loathes her husband. She strives to redefine herself as a woman in a changing England. The rest of The Forsyte Saga is one of rivalries, resentments and sumptuous manor houses, set against the dying embers of the British Empire. 'It's a family of power that saw its world crumbling around it,' Lewis told The New York Times in an interview on the show. 'It's a moment in time encapsulated by Downton Abbey and The Forsyte Saga that people really respond to, I think.' Viewers have shared their glowing reviews of the show on Google, with Reba Hatfield describing it as a plot that evolves over 'suspense-filled episodes'. 'Tour de force performances from the entire cast,' wrote Bill Ranieri in his review. 'Very moving story with many emotional moments. Worth the trouble. Old Jolyon was a favorite of mine.' More Trending Kitty Black added: 'I love to watch this every 5 or 10 years. Long enough so I don't remember everything. It's such a top notch production. The costumes, the properties, the drama of it all just sweeps you into another time.' It comes amid another adaptation of Galsworthy's novel for Channel 5, starring Doctor Who's Millie Gibson and Poldark's Eleanor Tomlinson. This third TV version was confirmed by Deadline, with Poldark writer Debbie Horsfield on board as the writer of the adaption, which is set to become a returning series. The show does not yet have a release date. View More » The Forsyte Saga is available to stream on Netflix. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Netflix viewers sobbing as WWE match gets stopped due to 'freak' injury MORE: 'We are aware': Coronation Street issues statement and urges fans to act MORE: Netflix thriller reveals major TV return for 'underrated' Hollywood legend after 6 years