Every now and then, you come across a book that is so intensely satisfying you want to buy a sack-load of copies and dole them out to strangers on the street, A Curious Earth is one....if only there were more writers of his calibre at work in Britain today

Though Woodward writes of family tragedy, his canvas is so busy with artfully drawn characters, telling incidents and the beautifully delineated ebb and flow of domestic life that the experience of reading him is richly involving, poignantly comic, and even somehow uplifting... his trilogy is a wonderful achievement

This immediately convincing and captivating novel is full of wit and humour and joy

A masterful portrait of old age and loneliness. I cannot praise it highly enough. If you haven't read the previous books, no matter - you will

Woodward wears his influences lightly, and tells this strange story about living and dying in a voice as beautiful and bright as it is learned

There are some wonderful set pieces, some needle sharp observations... and some delightful comic moments

If this exquisitely written, funny, touching finale doesn't actually win something, then there's no justice

Woodward's novels rise far above the ordinary. His characters are wonderfully complex and rich

It is Woodward's special ability to extract even from these grim beginnings some grounds for hope, and , indeed, some comic potential

Assured and accomplished

Above all an unsentimental tribute to family

Woodward wonderfully depicts the ignominies of old age and bereavement

Quite brilliant ... the writing is scintillatingly good at times, working up to vivid and hilarious scenes ... a book that alerts you to the whole beautiful absurdity of life