The only named wind in the British Isles, Helm is a strong northeasterly gale that blows down the slopes of Cross Fell in the Pennines and is known for its unusual cloud formations. Helm has been known to dislodge roofs, haystacks, trees and riders from their horses. Twenty years in the writing, Sarah Hall’s Helm is an ambitious novel that tells stories from the perspective of the wind, and from the people on whom, through the ages, Helm has wreaked chaos. Helm is a book of vast scope, lyrical prose and sharp shifts in style and tone, all of which makes it a tricky job for a narrator. Helm is a slippery, shapeshifting phenomenon that Hall notes can be hard to visualise and explain, though that doesn’t stop her from trying.