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London Fields
London Fields
Feb 20, 2026 1:13 AM

Author:Martin Amis

London Fields

Writer, Samson Young, is staring death in the face, and not only his own.

Void of ideas and on the verge of terminal decline, Samson’s dash to a decaying, degenerate London has brought him through the doors of the Black Cross pub and into a murder story just waiting to be narrated.

At its centre is the mesmeric, doomed Nicola Six, destined to be murdered on her 35th birthday. Around her: the disreputable men who might yet turn out to be her killer. All Samson has to do is to write Nicola’s story as it happens, and savour in this one last gift that life has granted him.

'A true story, a murder story, a love story and a thriller bursting with humour, sex and often dazzling language' Independent

Reviews

A profound work, it's also the best novel ever written about pub darts.

—— John Sutherland , The Times

Martin Amis's most ambitious, intelligent and nourishing novel to date... Keith Talent is a brilliant comic creation...as a fictional minor crook, he is in the major league, lying and cheating on the scale of Greene's Pinkie Brown and Saul Bellow's Rinaldo Cantabile

—— Observer

An electrifying writer who likes to shock his fans and share his sharply contemporary concerns... Amis is a maddening master you need to read - the best of his generation

—— Mail on Sunday

London Fields, its pastoral title savagely inappropriate to its inner-city setting, vibrates, like all Amis's work, with the force fields of sinister, destructive energies. At the core of its surreal fable are four figures locked in lethal alignment

—— Sunday Times

Darkly comic

—— Daily Express

Since The Usual Suspects, novels and movies have become obsessed with the trick ending but .Insolently resisting this trend Harris has brought off a known-ending story

—— Guardian

A sophisticated thriller that takes in its stride the conventions of the historical novel, Pompeii deserves the place it will undoubtedly have at the top of the bestseller list.

—— Times Literary Supplement

Blazingly exciting... Harris, as Vesuvius explodes, gives full vent to his genius for thrilling narrative... pulse-rate-speeding masterpieces of suffocating suspense and searing action

—— Sunday Times

Robert Harris's Pompeii is his best yet: as explosive as Etna, as addictive as a thriller, as satisfying as great history - Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Books of the Year'

—— Daily Telegraph

Breakneck pace, constant jeopardy and subtle twists of plot... a blazing blockbuster

—— Daily Mail

Harris has done a tremendous job in evoking life in ancient Italy... I am lost in admiration at his energy and skill

—— Mail on Sunday

The long drawn-out death agony of the two cities is brilliantly done. Explosive stuff indeed

—— Daily Telegraph

Gripping, topical and dauntingly intelligent

—— Sunday Times

A stunning novel... The subtlety and power of its construction holds our attention to the end

—— The Times

A whole community, buried in volcanic ash 2000 years ago, has been brought to life... Stirring and absorbing

—— Sunday Telegraph

A supremely good piece of storytelling, most impressively researched

—— The Guardian

Britain’s leading thriller writer … Explosive stuff, indeed – and yes, it goes with a bang

—— Tom Holland , Daily Telegraph

The depth of the research in the book is staggering … Pompeii is indeed a blazing blockbuster

—— Simon Brett , Daily Mail

The final 100 pages are terrific, as good as anything Harris has done ... Stirring and absorbing

—— David Robson , Sunday Telegraph

Pompeii by Robert Harris was another triumph … put together with the skill of a craftsman

—— David Robson , Sunday Telegraph

Robert Harris's Pompeii is his best yet: as explosive as Etna, as addictive as a thriller, as satisfying as great history

—— Simon Sebag Montefiore , Daily Telegraph

McCarthy's descriptions of nature and of the everyday details of the era are vivid, surprising and true. And while the writing is often beautiful and ornate, the story has a bracing, Beckett-like severity

—— Irish Times
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