Opening at random Gillian Beer's new edition of Lewis Carroll's poems, Jabberwocky and Other Nonsense, guarantees a pleasurable experience - not all of it nonsensical

This is an elegant volume, likely to delight enthusiasts, while introducing Lewis Carroll's poetry to a younger readership. The poems are set out chronologically following a generous, thoughtful introduction from the esteemed Cambridge critic Gillian Beer... Beer has done an admirable job, and this edition will appeal to readers of all ages

The big theme is power . . . Unsworth's 18th-century setting finds a correspondingly 18th-century feel in the fabric of his story: it is deeply sentimental, at time robustly comic . . . a silkily written potboiler, wonderfully well-realised, entirely engrossing.

Has all its predecessor's power to shock. This novel is immediately involving and immensely readable and may even be better than the [Booker-winning] earlier book.

This gripping novel . . . stands alone as yet another example of the author's extraordinary ability to turn dry history into dramatic narrative . . . With so much happening on the page that is dramatic and plot-based - the many different narrative threads eventually tie together in an entirely satisfying fashion - it could be easy to overlook the instances of quiet psychological transformation that give this novel its particular power.

Mohsin's first-person comic novel of a Pakistani socialite both enlightens and delights

A romp through Pakistan's high society

Moni Mohsin is one of the funniest and sharpist satirists writing anywhere in the world today - she can make you laugh out loud even while she delivers hard-hitting critiques of Lahore high society and the state of Pakistani politics

This is a wildly entertaining book but, beware, it also bites

Achingly funny, touching and fizzing with intelligence, this book will have you laughing out loud even as you fear for the state of world politics

A delicious bon-bon of a book, skewering Pakistani society.Great good fun

Interweaves a variety of thoroughly imagined life stories and predicaments with quiet, effective skill

I have greater admiration for Margaret Forster than for most novelists. A very fine, continuously interesting, and often moving work, all the better because it is so firmly rooted in the ordinary world of everyday experience

At times witty and enchanting, on other occasions full of doubt and self-loathing, Merivel remains a stunning achievement. He is Everyman and speaks to us all

Exuberance is a very hard thing to sustain in a novel… However, Tremain brings it off brilliantly. As one might expect, this is a very funny novel, full of picaresque adventure, hapless accidents and ingeniously wrought slapstick. However, it is also a very moving and beautiful novel. There are passages here which I found myself reading over and over again simply in order to savour them. Merivel: A Man of His Time may have been a long time coming, but it’s been well worth the wait

Merivel is excellent company. Writing with a mimic’s ear for conversation, whimsical one moment, grave the next, Tremain has an underlying preoccupation here: the last third of live, love and loss, loneliness and vanity

Tremain writes beautifully about Reniassance England but it’s the glittering paradoxes of Merivel’s character that here leap fully formed from the page

Tremain’s novel experiments continually with light and shade – she expertly paints a picture with three dimensions and real feeling

Merivel offers a rich and satisfying sequel to the bright beginning of Restoration

More interesting than all the period decoration is the character of Merivel, a character whom the author has such deep knowledge of. Tremain’s fusion of an engrossing character and the minutiae of another time is a marvel

Tremain's control of her character and her reflective but often dramatic unfolding of events are impressive acts of authorial ventriloquism, in which she gives a nod to the great diarists of that era but carries off her own man's story with wit, grace and originality. There is only to add that, despite the linear storytelling imposed on a journal, she not only effortlessly sustains momentum and mood, but brings the novel to as near a perfect ending as one could wish

Tremain is particularly good at exploring the nuances of life for the hapless Merivel so that reader empathises with his sense of loneliness and despair. As well as exploring the sensitive side of Merivel’s character we share his intimate thoughts which are often very funny. A beautiful book

A delightful portrait of an aging man at the mercy of his own foibles and frustrations

Sequels rarely live up to their predecessors but this one comes close

A glorious book of heart-warming philosophy and heart-rending sadness

An excellent novel...thrilling reading...incredibly entertaining

Surely one of the most versatile novelists writing today

Vivid, original and always engaging

Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart

Steps inside the mind of Sir Robert Merivel

For a second time this is one to cherish

A Pepysian romp of the first order

Continues in the same superior vein as Restoration… The fusion of such an engrossing character, and the minutiae of another time, remains a marvel

In this evocative and beautifully drawn novel of family and loyalty in the face of an uncertain future Tremain continues the story of a wonderfully unique character

Hugely enjoyable

Merivel’s hapless charm remains intact in this tour de force of literary technique

A sequel that looks back to the earlier novel without ever quite recapturing its spirit is the perfect form in which to evoke that feeling of having to carry on, and of trying to make yourself have fun even with it eventually begins to hurt

A marvelllously rollicking good read, and it is such a pleasure to meet Robert Merivel again. Rose Tremain brings the character to life in a way that makes you want to find out even more about the period. Enormously skilled and deft