This is a novel that wears its learning lightly. The extensive research is woven seamlessly into the plot and illuminates the setting

This is a marvellously vivid and enterataining evocation of Cromwellian and Restoration England. Mount paints from a rich palette, but the brushwork is stylishly economical... When is a historical novel not a historical novel? When it is written by Ferdinand Mount. He is in danger of giving the genre a good name'

The story smoothly takes in the Dutch wars, the Plague and Fire... It includes hellish episodes in a groaning Bedlam, as well as sylvan scenes of sport and the superior delights of the metropolis... Mount gives JEM a fluent, allusive prose with a period flavour that avoids pastiche...vivid...powerful

He was the equal of Philip Roth, Günter Grass, Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. His genius was remarkably versatile - he was at once a great comic and a writer of shocking earnestness and grim poignancy

Saramago is a writer of formidable talent and extraordinary imagination

To speak of the novels of José Saramago is to speak of the sheer pleasure of reading