Daruwalla is another iconic Irving figure... Irving handles this incarnadine combination of farce and horror with high speed skill, creating a compulsively readable book

[Irving] is at the peak of his powers... he plunges the reader into one sensual or grotesque scene after another with cheerful vigour and a madcap tenderness for life... entertainment on a grand scale

More plot twists than the Ramayana and a cast of characters that includes dwarves, prostitutes, movie stars, tranvestites and at least one serial killer

Irving has given us that treat of treats, a wide-ranging fiction of massive design and length that encapsulates our world with intelligence and sugars the pill with wit

Daruwalla's quest for the truth is what sustains this book... a writer with the courage to follow this difficult journey while also exploring issues of poverty, racism and disease in a novel so full of humour is a writer to be treasured

John Irving is brilliantly clever: the fabulous, fantastic story never slows nor will you lose interest

Classic Cooper: either the perfect beach read or else something to curl up on the sofa with to keep out the encroaching autumn chill

Jilly has given more pleasure to more girls and women than anyone else alive today... Cooper's familiar warmth and irrepressible humour

Warmed by the tender characterisation that has made Jilly Cooper a national treasure

Just the thing for a wet winter weekend

Unrivalled joy

A classic romp through the world of horse racing. Guilty pleasures rarely come as delicious as this

Jilly's descriptions of the glorious Cotswold countryside are some of the most lyrical ever written and her comedies of manners rival Nancy Mitford, if not Jane Austen

As plots go you can't get more charming than this

The narrative zips along, pierced with her characteristically brilliant ear for dialogue and empathy for human relationships of all kinds... You won't be able to put it down once you get going

A rollicking fantasy

I loved it

Sit back and enjoy the ride as the queen of the bonkbuster, Jilly Cooper, delivers another fabulously entertaining saga

Sharp, funny and touching

Gripping ... A compelling narrative, full of plots, murder, lust, fear, greed and corruption ... No writes is better at creating excitement over political theatre

The thrilling pace of the narrative does not let up from start to finish. Lustrum is an utterly engrossing, suspense-filled read

Dripping in detail it brings ancient Rome to vivid life, yet the political intrigue has echoes in today's ruling classes. And while the pace gallops along, the action is reined in just enough to crank the tension up. *****

Conspiracy, betrayal and political upheaval are the keys that turn this brilliantly researched page-turner

For a page turner...I would go for Lustrum (Hutchinson, £18.99) the second volume of Robert Harris's semi-fictional trilogy on the life of the Roman politician Cicero. The oldest stories really are often the best!

Harris is one of the consummate storytellers of the age, a master of narrative who - whatever genre he tackles - delivers books that are definitions of the word compulsive. In Lustrum, we have the mechanics of the thriller applied to ancient Rome, with immensely powerful results

A fine achievement: a hefty, politically serious thriller that effortlessly reanimates the dusty quarrels of Roman government while casting ironic and instructive sidelight on those of our own

Supreme story-telling

Deeply satisfying, impeccably researched and spectacularly topical ... a thriller to die for ... Harris brilliantly evokes Rome on the edge of political chaos through the eyes of Cicero's slave Tiro, who acts as his mater's secretary ... The pace never falters, and the politics are sharply relevant for today

Harris communicates such a strong sense of Imperial Rome - the book is awesomely well-informed about the minutiae of everyday life

Lustrum... was a fascinating world, a world of subtle political machinations and fine oratory and nuanced debate, and complex legislation, and intrigue, and an extremely absorbing one

It is a tribute to Harris's deftness of touch that this book feels so fresh ... he has a lovely dry, debunking style ... Harris writes about the life of politics with an insight rare among historical novelists ... It is as a pure thriller ... wry, clever, thoughtful, with a terrific sense of timing and eye for character

Lustrum offers a great insight into the psychology of political calculation. The story of Cicero's fall from power to the point where even sworn allies close their doors on him offers little consolation over the next few months for our own leader

What a storm it is. The five year period covered by the novel, the 'lustrum' of its title, has some claim to be the most thrilling in the entire span of classical history ... Remorseless it may be; but it is also, as one would expect of Harris, thrillingly paced and narrated. The excitements of a classic thriller, however, are almost the least of the novel's virtues: virtues which derive in large part, from Cicero himself. What grips most about Lustrum is the seriousness with which the political issues at stake are taken, and the vividness of the characterisation: both of which, in large part, reflect the closeness of Harris's reading of his hero's speeches and correspondence

Robert Harris brings the cut-throat republic to life... He understands politics and how to dramatise them.

Offers great insight into the psychology of political calculation

[Lustrum] stands on its own merits as a thoroughly engaging historical novel. Republican Rome, with all its grandeur and corruption, has rarely been made as vivid as it appears in Harris's book. The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller.

Harris never makes his comparisons between Rome and modern Britain explicit, but they are certainly there. And that's the principal charm of his ancient thrillers - their up-to-dateness.

Intrigue and excitement all the way, brilliantly read by Oliver Ford Davies.