The novel gives a clear sense of Sark as somewhere both remarkable and beautiful.

I am delighted to meet you,' trills Mr Pye to a fisherman. 'Are you, eh, you fat little porker,' the thug replies. 'B- you.

Peake has been praised, but he has also been mistrusted," observed Anthony Burgess in his introduction to Titus Groan . "His prose works are not easily classifiable: they are unique as, say, the books of Peacock or Lovecraft are unique . . . It is difficult, in postwar English writing, to get away with big rhetorical gestures. Peake manages it because, with him, grandiloquence never means diffuseness; there is no musical emptiness in the most romantic of his descriptions; he is always exact.

The fable is cleverly and gracefully resolved and the final scenes are a joy to read. Peake's illustrations complement the novel very well and these, too, are examples of his charm, of his enormous illustrative range.

Triumphant. . . . Her use of historical detail and truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer.

Readers will find every expectation fulfilled... The large scope of the novel allows Gabaldon to do what she does best, paint in exquisite detail the lives of her characters.

A favourite of mine, a fine satirical work...highly imaginative.

Feel-good...life affirming...genuinely original...both laugh-out-loud funny and moving.

'Lively, slightly breathless comic narrative...this game is worth the candle'

'Fun, funny, fast-paced'

'Distinctive debut novel'

Very funny

An almost divine comedy that conjures up an underworld whose sinners are more likely to be guilty of sartorial, not satanic, misdemeanors

A moving and disturbing tale of love and loyalty. And you might cry