Confirms that he had inherited the mantle of the late P.G. Wodehouse. This is deliciously English comedy

Extremely funny . . . Mr Sharpe's dialogues is nifty, imaginative, enjoyable

I laughed out loud, I really did . . . Tom Sharpe is nowhere more buoyant than when mounting catastrophic scenes of hilarious mayhem

A very funny writer indeed . . . Tom Sharpe's comedy lies as much in his language and the pace of the dialogue as in the outrageous muddles and confusions of his comic situations

This exuberant novel will cheer all those who dislike bureaucracy

Farcical in the best sense: Blott on the Landscape is as tense and compelling as any good detective novel

Reading “A Dance to the Music of Time” was such a joyous experience, I remember wishing there'd been more than twelve volumes.

I re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life.

He has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply

[A] comic masterpiece

Comic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive

It's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English Literature.

This is a book to read by the fireside, to be swept along in, to realise - with a start - that hours have gone by...In other words, to rediscover the lost-in-another-world joy of reading. And this book really IS a joy...my favourite book of the year so far

A delicious, highly intelligent page-turner... With clever, confident plotting and meticulous period details, this is an engrossing and deeply satisfying read

As you would expect from somebody steeped in Victorian fictional history, Taylor rarely puts a foot wrong...the colourful events which take place on the Downs should delight any racing enthusiast

Taylor’s love and understanding of Victorian melodrama is put to good use in this tangibly detailed and deliciously written pastiche centred on an Epsom Derby swindle

This is a fictional world in which daughters are ready to bump off their fathers, husbands to exploit their wives, and everyone is happy to chance their assets on the wheel of fortune. It’s a novel that will keep you gripped until the very last furlong

It is a detective story as gripping as the Victorian novels that inspired it, and is written with narrative flair and a terrific sense of fun

Derby Day will be hard to put down... As ever with Taylor, literary complexities lurk under the smooth surface of a stylish page-turner

De Witt has intelligence, wit and unusual stylistic bravery

An ambitious, colossal debut novel

DeWitt pushes enjoyably but firmly against (and sometimes beyond) the unknown capabilities of the reader