Ingenious

An enthralling story of love and loss, a real literary treasure. One of the most original novels of the year

You don't need to be in archaeology - this is a tale of rivalry, loss and thwarted love. It's so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it's not often I miss a meal

A rich vein of dry humour runs throughout

Intriguing, tender and entertaining … easily Preston's best

A delicate, quietly affecting human drama

A moving novel that coheres wonderully as it progresses

A delicate evocation of a vanished era

Wonderful, evocative. From this simple tale of dirt, Preston has produced the finest gold. He keeps an iron grip on the reader's attention

Beatutifully written...there is a true and wonderful ending to the story

Wistful and poignant. A masterpiece in Chekhovian understatement

Exciting, evocative and beautifully written. A treasure in itself

Shimmers with longing and regret . . . Preston writes with economical grace . . . He has written a kind of universal chamber piece, small in detail, beautifully made and liable to linger on in the heart and the mind. It is something utterly unfamiliar, and quite wonderful.

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

The greatest comic writer ever

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

Sublime comic genius