Jean Plaidy, by the skilful blending of superb storytelling and meticulous attention to authenticity of detail and depth of characterisation has become one of the country’s most widely read novelists.

Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting.

Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama.

Outstanding

Winterson seamlessly blends history with fiction... The Daylight Gate is an enthralling story unfussily told, I read it all in one sitting, only wishing there were more.

Winterson weaves history with fiction in this atmospheric and totally captivating novel. Cancel your plans, you won't want to put this down.

Told with the author’s usual aplomb and should appeal to her many fans.

This dark story with its fantastical trappings of magick and mysticism, its strong women and wild, Lancastrian setting is Winterson’s natural habitat and she maps it with relish, weaving Shakespearean themes of ambiguous love affairs conducted by shape-shifting, androgynous lovers around the dire squalor superstition and sheer desperation revealed by the bleak facts of the trial...Filled with Winterson’s characteristic intelligence and energy... lively and enjoyable.

Beautifully written.

Winterson lavishly embroiders a tale rich in Gothic supernatural touches... In a feverish climate, where fear of women and their sexuality often translated into rape and persecution, Winterson creates a deliciously dreadful tale that cleverly blurs the line between real and imagined horror.

A real page-turner

This is horror for the thinking person…compelling’

Sexy, terrifying and beautifully written, as you would expect.

The novel is a revelation . . . infused with a biting, refreshing irreverence . . . Its profound and stirring, its well crafted, you won't be able to get it out of your head for weeks . . . an unforgettable novel

It's beautifully, lyrically written with a penetrating awareness that flows from the book right into the reader. Downham doesn't shy away from a single taboo . . . Jenny Downham has written about a life that burned brightly and in doing so, given us the life-affirming impulse to make ours burn brightly too

A hugely life affirming story. It tells of the simple, everyday things that can bring such joy, pleasure and humour to the experience of living, as well as the anger, frustration and deep sadness that may be felt. Without wanting to sound clichéd, it reminded me that the one certain thing in life is death and that I should make the most of every minute

It is the most amazing book I have read for a very long time. Even editors can be moved - and BEFORE I DIE surely did it to me. The voice of this girl is brilliant, the story so well written, I could not stop reading - knowing that there is no happy ending, knowing that only a slow read will give Tessa more time to live...A perfect book about the meaning of life

I just want to express my thoughts on this book. You told me yesterday that I needed tissues and you were right. In general I do not weep while reading books .... Young adolescents might recognize Tess's last wishes, sex, love, drugs etc., but older readers will be blown away by the story, by her father, her courage etc. ...the first-person narrative is brilliant and proves for me she is a literary writer with a longer career than this novel

I want to tell you again how happy and proud I am to publish this very original, and well crafted novel, the first work by a talented writer bound to join the literary circle of the greatest

It's sad, but funny too and ultimately heart-warming. It makes you realise just how precious life is.

How she and those around her cope with living and dying is beautifully and movingly described in this stunning debut novel

...an uplifting experience

Jenny Downham has created a truly remarkable book that sparkles with a zest for life and is heartbreaking in it's deepest sense. It is written with an immediacy and urgency that pulses with energy and poetic intensity

This is a marvellous novel for teens, but just as much of a tear jerker for adults too.

Ultimately the book is life-affirming and uplifting.

Before I Die manages to avoid sentimentality whilst remaining desperately sad and is guarenteed to leave you reading the last few pages through eyes full of tears

An affecting and brave novel. Tessa is such a rich character.

It fills you with the urge to live every moment as if it were your last

What could easily have been a teenage teer jerker is a moving and heart-wrenching story that will have you pleading for a miracle of Hollywood proportions.

Incredibly inspiring, uplifting and life-affirming.

Emotional and painful but also really beautiful

An honest and open account of a subject matter that’s not easy to talk about, it’s heart-wrenching and thought-provoking, yet beautiful and uplifting too. Its ending is truly breathtaking.