An unforgettable journey into criminal behaviour that takes me back to my own childhood fantasies

The power of [Dickens] is so amazing, that the reader at once becomes his captive

Dickens is huge - like the sky. Pick any page of Dickens and it's immediately recognizable as him, yet he might be doing social satire, or farce, or horror, or a psychological study of a murderer - or any combination of these

The image of little Oliver Twist victimised by poverty, almost seduced by the specious excitement of crime, and then offered the possibility of a lucrative career in authorship is always compelling

We leave him most reluctantly, and so will every reader who has any capacity to see and feel whatsoever is most loveable, hateful, or laughable, in the character of the everyday life about him

Dickens has genius to vivify his observation

He deals truly with human nature, which never can degrade; he takes up everything, good, bad, or indifferent, which he works up into a rich alluvial deposit.He is natural, and that never can be ridiculous

Carefully constructed sets and a convincing commentary on social change

mesmerising novel paints pictures of many different worlds in the early 20th century...busting with detail... captivating

When on song, which he often is here, Taylor is a felicitous, intelligent writer. He sets a scene with admirable clarity, peoples it with memorable characters, and offers a plot that will keep most readers hooked and satisfied for nigh on 350 pages. These days this is rarer than you might think

D J Taylor is remarkably under-appreciated as a novelist.

This special piece of period realism is very far indeed from being either silly or dull.

Taylor is excellent on the 'incidentals' - arresting tableaux abound - and the impenetrable, imperturbable Alice compels.

A plot of Victorian complexity handled with great skill

Blisteringly angry..,begins as a black comedy but gradually turns much darker with the mad-as-hell narrator suspected of murdering his lovers in London

Sutton shows us everything through Freeman's eyes and he pulls it off very well indeed. A horrible character but a compelling narrator

Sutton shows us everything through Freeman's eyes and he pulls it off very well indeed

This darkly comic novel with it's brilliantly acute observations of life in London in the 21st Century completely captures the zeitgeist and raises more than a few laughs.

Gripping and darkly comic tale of 21st-century material greed