Rich, unsparing and exquisitely textured...Farndale possesses the implacable emotional ferocity of a first-rate novelist...Achingly poignant.

Farndale is an exceptional storyteller... An elegant and atmospheric fiction about survival and redemption.

Nigel Farndale’s magnificent novel… Tender, chilling and life-affirming, this book made me want to shout from the rooftops.

The beauty of this novel lies in Farndale's ability to wrap some testing moral questions around a fantastic story...A book that has at its core a passionate examination of the meaning of love.

Two stories set some 70 years apart unfold in tandem in this big, busy novel whose themes range from the mysteries of memory to forbidden desire of all shades....As for the riddle of how these two tales connect, that's what drives the novel and provides it with an unexpected twist.

Cleverly intertwines narrative strands and relationships from the Second World War and present day...It's easy to immerse oneself in Nigel Farndale's writing...compelling...vivid and, at times, disturbing.

A dual time frame novel that effortlessly switches between WW II and the present-day conflict in Afghanistan. ..With elegant prose and cracking suspense, this book certainly delivers.

Its central characters’ charm and intelligence make them irresistible company

Dazzling and gorgeously written... It’s a marvel.

Not a traditional love story and it comes barbed with sadness, although flashed through with poetry and wit. It is a novel that tricks you with its seeming simplicity but it sticks with you for a long while after you have put it down

I had ten pages left as the bus pulled into my home station, and I wanted to murder the driver for rousting me from my seat. Instead of heading home, I stood in the parking lot and finished the book right then and there. I did not merely love Frances and Bernard; I worried myself sick over them. And the prose! So delectable you could eat it for dessert.

A truly original, very moving novel about how sometimes the deepest relationships in our lives are also the most impossible. The letters between Frances and Bernard -- which begin as witty, sometimes wary, and full of unusual confidences about love and spiritual matters-- explode with passion on the page. My eyes filled with tears. What a rich writer and two unforgettable lovers!

Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity. The prose here is exquisite, winding between narrative momentum and lofty introspection. And she employs the epistolary form nimbly, providing an intimate, uncluttered space for her characters to develop

With some fine writing, this slim volume packs a punch

Enjoyable

Sentences sparkle on the page… Both intellectual and down to earth, serious and funny

Jones gives the appearances of being an effortlessly fluent writer. Her sentences tumble forth, occasionally surprising the reader with their odd perfection… Sadie Jones is that rare novelist who can deliver a satisfying plot without stylistic compromise

The novel captures, better than anything I’ve read, theatre’s febrile, ephemeral intensity

Now I want to read her other books

An irresistible read

A page-turning read. We can think of no more worthwhile or enjoyable companion on holiday

Sadie Jones depicts the dark undercurrents of middle-class life with unerring skill, telling a powerful and disturbing story with insight and depth

thoughtful and ambitious

Excellent and astutely observed

I read the book. I loved it. I loved her. She’s smart, she’s funny and she makes us all feel like we’re good just the way we are.

Fresh, frantic and very funny.

Long-awaited.

Bridget is back! ... The third book in the series does not disappoint, taking the reader on a whirlwind tour of Bridget's life as a 50-something, and all the highs, lows, tears and laughter that you'd expect.

What remains unchanged – and addictive – is its diary format.

Life may have changed dramatically for Bridget, but you can still prepare to laugh and cry at Helen Fielding’s latest novel.

Fans of the original books have not been, and will not be, disappointed.

Tender, touching and often hilarious – a welcome return.

Bridget is as hopeless, loveable and funny as ever.

An uproariously funny novel of modern life, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the triumphant return of our favourite Everywoman.

Laugh-out-loud funny, as well as punctuated by moments of genuine sadness, which are proportionately balanced throughout the story.

Timely, tender, touching, witty, wise and bloody hilarious

Hilariously written

This book is an innocent pleasure, and made me laugh a lot