Masterly storytelling.

One of our foremost writers of naval fiction.

A compulsively readable storyteller

100 per cent proof adventure

Higgins makes the pages fly

The master craftsman of good, clean adventure

A seasoned pro . . . Mr Higgins knows how to tell a story!

The architect of the modern thriller

Unsurpassed by any adventure story in recent years

Well deserved to win the 2007 Costa book of the year award...sophisticated texture...Ms Kennedy manages to make every battle truism fresh

It is quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth... We are lucky to have this book

The facts surrounding the discovery of this book are as remarkable as its contents are magnificent... A triumph of indomitability and a masterwork of literary accomplishment

Deftly translated by Sandra Smith, this is possibly the most devastating indictment of French manners and morals since Madame Bovary, as hypnotic as Proust at the biscuit tin, as gruelling as Genet on the prowl. Irène Nemirovsky is, on this evidence, a novelist of the very first order, perceptive to a fault and sly in her emotional restraint

An heroic attempt to write a novel about a nightmare in which the author is entirely embedded

Read this haunting novel, then read [Nemirovsky’s] letters in this edition to feel the full force of the work

While marked by poppy wearing and memorial ceremonies, the First World War is also sustained through family history, handed down from one generation to the next. No book better articulates the impact of this narrative than Stephen Faulks’ Birdsong.

A truly amazing read

I’d never read such descriptive literature, and couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about what I’d just read. His [Faulks] portrayal of terror on the battlefield is so powerful

My all-time favourite book