Brings war in the ancient world to vivid, gritty and bloody life. I'm blown away. Protector stand alongside the best of Mary Renault - an epic with the learning of the classics' 'Brings war in the ancient world to vivid, gritty and bloody life. I'm blown away. Protector stand alongside the best of Mary Renault - an epic with the learning of the classics

I was transported. I felt the Mediterranean sun on my face, smelled the sea on the air . . . Here is a master at work. There is no one better at this

An epic piece of historical fiction, full of political intrigue and vivid action, and so evocative of the world of ancient Greece. A novel of the highest quality

Bring[s] the Greco-Persian Wars to life in brilliant detail. Thrilling

Praise for Conn Iggulden

Iggulden tells an absolutely cracking story...the pace is nail-biting and the set dressing magnificent

One of our finest historical novelists

Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction

Pacy...and packed with action

Breathes new life into the darkest and most dramatic of times

Compelling reading

This is a book that will be loved unreasonably and life-long

Utterly captivating ... Written with great heart, humour and humanity, it's the kind of book you want to escape normal life to read at every available opportunity.

The Whalebone Theatre has all the makings of a classic. And Cristabel Seagrave is the most gratifying hero. The war scenes often left me breathless: they are as good as you will ever read. A wonderful debut. Actually, a tour de force'

So immersive and joyous and glorious. I was completely entranced

Quinn's story passes like a fabulous pageant, richly coloured and packed with incident, taking us from the lonely and unorthodox Dorset childhood of the extraordinary Christabel to the poignant aftermath of her heroic Second World War. Quinn has a sublime touch: Cristabel and her troupe are unforgettable, as riotous in comedy as they are heart-breaking in tragedy'

Magnificent. As capacious, surprising and magical as the whale that lends its bones to Cristabel's theatre: a tale of intertwined lives and braided fates as deftly managed and heartbreaking as a Dickens' novel.

Breathes fresh, bracing air into the lungs of the multi-generational saga - and the very form of the novel itself. Few people writing today can match Quinn for the energy and precision of her prose...

I defy any reader not to fall in love... it transported me wholesale to another time and place and while I wandered its pages, I forgot the world for a while

Utterly heart-breaking and joyous ... I just disappeared into THE WHALEBONE THEATRE and didn't want to leave

Quite simply brilliant ... The kind of story you sink into, getting totally wrapped up in the characters and their world ... The Whalebone Theatre is a book to treasure

Far and away my favourite novel of the year ... A gorgeous book, following the lives of three half-siblings from the '20s and through World War II, the same canvas Kate Atkinson has used to such great effect. Love, grief and comedy in perfect balance: it's hard to believe that this accomplished novel comes from a first-timer

Deservedly a surprise bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic ... Absorbing the best parts of Kate Atkinson, Evelyn Waugh and Elizabeth Jane Howard, this is a book to sink into and be propelled along by its brilliant storytelling. Few debuts have been as assured as this; Quinn is a frighteningly talented writer

Elegantly written and totally immersive. Helmed by fierce, imaginative Cristabel, it follows the fate and fortune of the three Seagrave siblings as they stage a theatrical production in their crumbling Dorset manor, and cope with the darkness of World War II and the long shadow it casts over their ramshackle, but golden, childhoods

A WOMAN'S WEEKLY BOOK CLUB READ

Daringly ambitious... a novel that invites the reader to immerse themselves in the sweep of history, the rich and detailed research... breathtaking

Great Circle is an epic trip-through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywood-and you'll relish every minute

Glitz and guts square off in Great Circle: a tale of two women set apart by a century, fighting to retain control of their own lives in a society that demands subservience. Shipstead is adept at writing so vividly, the reader can feel the thrill and pain of her characters. Cunningly crafted. . . richly layered, a joy to read . . . riveting

Mesmerizing

An enthralling epic about aviation and adventure. A big, baggy blast of a book bulging with sex and drugs, taking in Prohibition-era Montana, wartime London, present-day Hollywood, painting and physics. I loved it

A generous, escapist treat

A soaring epic of female adventure and wanderlust

Bestselling novelist Maggie Shipstead was struggling to depict a female adventurer. So she became one. The stakes of GREAT CIRCLE are high-for its heroine, literally life or death. Though Shipstead never learned to fly herself, she aligned with her main character Marian Graves in more important ways . . . She is interested in testing her limits

Relentlessly exciting . . . My top recommendation for this summer. Shipstead's sweeping new female-centered epic intertwines the story of Marian, an aviator who wants to circumnavigate the globe with that of actor Hadley Baxter, cast a century later to play Marian in a film. What can Marian's life tell Hadley about her own?

Dazzling prose in the service of an expansive story that covers more than a century and seems to encapsulate the whole wide world. With detailed brilliance, she lavishes heart and empathy on every character. She never wavers, pulls out a twist or two that feel fully earned, and then sticks the landing

Swinging from one century to the next, from the moneyed splendor of cities to the shifting Antarctic ice, Shipstead's prose overflows with meticulous detail

Enthralling. Moving and surprising at every turn

Sweepingly panoramic and immersive. An audacious epic

In a moment when our quarantined worlds have become so small, GREAT CIRCLE offers more than just wanderlust; it feels like a liberation.

Maggie Shipstead combines cinematic scope with a poet's eye for detail

The beginning of Maggie Shipstead's astounding novel, a Booker finalist, includes a series of endings: two plane crashes, a sunken ship and several people dead. The bad luck continues when one of the ship's young survivors, Marian, grows up to become a pilot-only to disappear on the job. Shipstead unravels parallel narratives, Marian's and that of another woman whose life is changed by Marian's story, in glorious detail. Every character, whether mentioned once or 50 times, has a specific, necessary presence. It's a narrative made to be devoured, one that is both timeless and satisfying.

Absolutely dazzling

Thrilling

GREAT CIRCLE flew us to a different world. A book to devour

A sweeping saga that alternates between the life of a tenacious female aviator in the 1930s and that of a millennial film star cast to play her in a biopic. In death, 'each of us destroys the world,' the author observes - but her engrossing novel is a moving reflection on the will to survive

Artfully constructed and exhuberantly entertaining

Shipstead soars in this expansive, beautiful novel about women and flight

Engrossing, ambitious, beautifully written

Completely engrossing from the very first page. You won't be able to put this down