The research and historical detail are impeccable . . . and fans will enjoy this evocation of Elizabeth's tumultuous court

A glamourous tale peopled by warrior poets, flamboyant courtiers and shameless loves, it is also sharp, perceptive and dramatic

Be transported to the court of Elizabeth I, where Penelope Devereux is prepared to do anything in the scramble for power. Watch The Lady by Elizabeth Fremantle combines fast-paced storytelling with rich period detail

If you want an immersive read then this is it. The remarkable story of the beautiful Penelope Devereux comes vividly alive, bursting with colour and detail. The reader is transported to the perilous Elizabethan court, with all its plots, treachery and heartbreak, and gains fascinating insights into some of the most important figures of the time. Yet again Elizabeth Fremantle has produced a pacey, powerful narrative that kept this reader riveted throughout

Penelope Devereux, perspicacious, beautiful and muse of Sir Philip Sidney, will stop at nothing for the sake of her family. I was gripped by the tale of risky political and sexual shenanigans in the court of Elizabeth l

Penelope is a fascinating character and beautifully drawn in this enthralling, moving and immaculately written novel... Fremantle handles the intriguing with aplomb and it's impossible to read the books without feeling you are living events alongside the characters

Telling the story of the Elizabethan court, with all it's plots and intrigues

Fascinating . . . it's a delight to keep Penelope company as she plunges into the intrigues of Elizabeth's court

Ever since Queen's Gambit took the world of historical fiction by storm 3 years ago, Liz Fremantle's books have been the ones to watch in the world of Tudor fiction. The combination of depth, intelligence and real historical imagination that she brings to bear on the lesser-known (but immensely powerful) women of the Tudor era is unmatched in contemporary writing and gets better with each book. Not that either of the previous ones were sub par - far from it, they were exceptional - but, as with all good writers, the apprenticeship of each book sees its realisation in the one that comes after it and there's a steady rise in the textures and depths and many-layered plot threads.
The Lady we watch here is Penelope, sister of the notorious Essex, wife of a man who doesn't want to bed her, lover of those who do - though never the most important one: that love is unrequited and all the more powerful for it. The machinations of Elizabeth's court were never easy, but became positively frenetic as she edged towards death and refused to name a successor and the way the ageing monarch plays Cecil against Essex, as seen through the eyes of the woman who has to navigate a clear path through the chaos is brilliant. In fact, the shift of viewpoint from Penelope to Cecil and back again is the core strength of this book. Neither is an entirely reliable narrator, even to themselves, but taken together, they mesh to make a hologram of a time in history that is endlessly fascinating, but never fully understood.
This book is glorious. It will delight fans of Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory alike, but will also garner a whole new audience from those who just love good writing, whatever the genre, whatever the era

A wonderful, totally transporting novel that folds you into its world, word by word, page by page, and remains with you long after the last. I absolutely loved this book. Fremantle is a brilliant novelist

Sophie McManus has a shrewd eye for telling gestures and an ear for cruel speech and kindness.She is an incisive, surprising prose stylist, and her debut novel, The Unfortunates, heralds an exciting new talent with an old soul.

Is Sophie McManus the next Emma Straub?

Cohen, a key member of the United States' under-40 writers' club (along with Nell Freudenberger and Jonathan Safran Foer), is a rare talent who makes highbrow writing fun and accessible

[Cohen has] manifold talents at digging under and around absurdity... Language - not elision - is the primary material of Cohen's oeuvre, and his method of negotiating his way toward meaning is like powering straight through a thick wall of words... The reward is an off-kilter precision, one that feels both untainted and unique

Like [David Foster] Wallace, Cohen is clearly concerned wtih the depersonalizing effects of technology, broken people doing depraved things, and how the two intersect in tragic (and, sometimes, hilarious) ways. The franticness with which he writes about these themes is, at times, Wallace-esque

What dazzles here is a Pynchonesque verbal dexterity, the sonic effect of exotic vocabulary, terraced sentences robust pusn and metaphors and edgy, Tarantino-like dialogue

In Mr. Cohen’s hands, a meme is a matter of life and death, because he goes from the reality we all know—the link, the click—to the one we tend to forget: the human. . . . Cohen is ambitious. He is mapping terra incognita

Enthralling… Awe-inspiring

Cohen is immensely clever, witty, and indeed funny. He also knows about technology, and thus his novel deals with the world in the age of the internet

Book of Numbers brilliantly and rigorously examines a question that confronts literature today: What does the explosion of information from the internet mean for the future of storytelling?

Fascinating...for chutzpah alone, Cohen's chaotic fantasia certainly impresses

Frequently amazing, [it is] the first work of fiction to engage fully with the internet and its influence on modern living

There are wonderful things here cloaked with an invisibility spell, tucked away in the middle of the book, where only the stubbornest seeker after enchantment will find them