Author:Armistead Maupin
The sixth novel in the belovedTales of the Cityseries, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.
‘Maupin's adeptness at fluid dialogue, his flair for shaping characters who thread the needle between pop archetypes and singular human beings… are all on display’ New York Times
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A fiercely ambitious TV talk show host finds she must choose between national stardom in New York and a husband and child in San Francisco. Caught in the middle is their longtime friend, a gay man whose own future is even more uncertain. Wistful and compassionate yet subversively funny, Sure of You is Armistead Maupin’s addictively entertaining observation on family, friendship and every relationship in between.
Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in 1980s San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.
Like those of Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Armistead Maupin's novels have all appeared originally as serials...it is the strength of this approach, with its fantastic adventures and astonishingly contrived coincidences, that makes these novels charming and compelling
—— Literary ReviewA consummate entertainer...It is Maupin's Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly
—— Times Literary SupplementSan Francisco is fortunate in having a chronicler as witty and likeable as Armistead Maupin
—— IndependentI know I was not the only one who was up until two in the morning, promising myself to stop after just one chapter
—— David Feinberg , The New York Times Book ReviewArmistead Maupin's acclaim is richly deserved. He uses suspense, mystery and coincidence far more inventively than the more typical novelist
—— Jonathan Coe , GuardianMaupin is a richly gifted comic author
—— ObserverMaupin's work is like a drug: it's easy, it's fun and it leaves you greedy for more...superb
—— The AustralianThe great joy of this tender little novel is Deborah Moggach's sensory imagination
—— GuardianThe characterisation is superb, Moggach has brilliantly resurrected a world of genteel penury and intense, furtive sex, and the book exudes quiet excellence
—— Mail on SundayMaupin remains a great storyteller, a magnificently unrepentant liberal, and a wise, witty observer of the differences which make us human
—— Sunday TelegraphA creepy tale….set in a country house awash with secrets and strange happenings
—— Bella magazineShe takes relish in recreating a familiar Edwardian landscape, peopled by eligible cads and imperious dowagers... Jones’s highly combustible period piece makes the dramas at Downton look like a stroll in the park
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentDarkly humorous, quirky and engrossing, this is a ghostly tale full of twists and turns
—— Choice MagazineWhat a delicious read! Like something written by a wicked Jane Austen, here is love and error in a ramshackle manor house complete with railway survivors, a birthday party and a pony. I was completely captivated by its madcap nature and then, utterly unprepared for the strange fruit that the story became. Passing like a spring fever, here is a fairy tale that stays with you long after it is gone. I couldn't put it down
—— SARAH BLAKE, author of The PostmistressThe Uninvited Guests is at once a shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class. It is so well-written, so intricately plotted, that every page delivers some new astonishment. It is a brilliant novel
—— ANN PATCHETT, author of State of WonderWhat opens as an amusing Edwardian country house tale soon becomes a sinister tragi-comedy of errors, in which the dark underbelly of human nature is revealed in true Shakespearean fashion. Sadie Jones is a most talented and imaginative storyteller, and The Uninvited Guests is a very clever novel
—— JACQUELINE WINSPEAR, author of Elegy for EddieI will be surprised if I read anything stranger this year but I can’t help admiring Jones’s whimsical invention and the quality of her writing
—— Vanessa Berridge , Daily ExpressA modern Mitford saga
—— ASOS MagazineAward-winning Sadie Jones' third novel is her best yet. Hugely enjoyable with a superb, supernatural twist
—— TabletCooly playful...the luscious prose is precisely steered
—— Helen Dunmore , GuardianAn intelligent and poignant reflection on death and loss… a fabulous read
—— Lesley Mc Dowell , Glasgow Sunday HeraldSadie Jones…enters new literary territory with a whimsical Edwardian farce that takes its lead from the darker offerings of Saki and JB Priestley...The novel's denouement is satisfyingly outlandish
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentWith elegant ease, Jones spins a good old-fashioned comedy of manners
—— Katie Owen , Sunday TelegraphAndrew Motion brings lyricism but, more importantly, rollicking adventure to this sequel to Treasure Island
—— Mail on Sunday