Book Review: Once a Monster by Robert Dinsdale

When the Greek Myths collide with Dickensian London and produce a Fairy Tale.

An absolutely engaging retelling of the legend of the Minotaur What would happen if the beast had merely been stunned by Perseus and managed to escape the Labyrinth?  Robert Dinsdale has woven an intricate story about Minos (the minotaur) who is currently in London and working on the great sewer project of Bazalgette. 

The year is 1861 and he has been set upon by footpads, stabbed and assaulted and dumped in the Thames.  At the time just ending up in this most polluted of rivers would have been enough to end the life of the hardiest of humans, but not our “hero”.  He is washed up to be found by Nell, one of a group of mudlarks, children who forage on the Thames shoreline for anything they can sell.  Nell takes pity on this giant stranger and together the children pull him into a cave, out of the worst of the weather.  Minos is a giant of a man, but is not the half-man, half-bull of legend.  However, there are calluses on his head where the “horns” might have been; an important detail as it turns out.