A beautiful fairytale of a book with the most delicious prose. I devoured every page

[A] surprisingly refreshing read

If you enjoy magical realism and moving tales of self-discovery, you won't be able to put this down.

Joyce's characters are so charmingly eccentric that they could have leapt straight from the pages of a Dickens novel. Enid is a comedic masterpiece, effervescent and brimming with life.
This exhilarating story will scoop you up and carry you along to a dizzying crescendo. But it is also a story of an unlikely friendship and of women who refuse to be defined by the labels cast upon them in drab 1950s Britain. Funny, wise, and utterly life-affirming

A life-affirming, joyously escapist picaresque tale

This glorious novel is as much about second chances, heartfelt friendships and emotional courage as it is about trekking through dangerous terrain.

A glorious novel about second chances, heartfelt friendships and emotional courage.

BEST BOOKS FOR SUMMER 2020: uplifting

Rachel Joyce created an unforgettable character with Harold Fry and she's done it again with Margery Benson ... Hilarious

A sparkling new take on the concept of changing your life on a whim ... a standout, special read.

A clear-eyed, unsparing view of regret, failure, loss, & the cost that life exacts from so many, countered with a belief in the resilience of human spirit & the possibility of second chances.

Unlikely and mesmerising, it's a book you don't want to end.

An enchanting story of friendship and self-discovery

A glorious romp

I greatly enjoyed this warm and charming novel about one of the most ill-matched companions in comic literature. The heroically intellectual, ungainly, unsociable Margery and the barely literate, flighty, charming, crazy Enid are both brave in very different yet ultimately compatible ways. Their adventures both on board ship and in New Caledonia read like EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia rewritten by the gentler pen of Barbara Pym

Rachel Joyce is a masterful storyteller. She has written the perfect book for these times. Funny, perceptive and life-enhancing. I urge you to read it

Beautifully written, quirky and humorous with wonderful characters

I've loved Rachel's writing since Harold's canvas shoes. Miss Benson's Beetle is just as brilliant and elegant and wise. It's also powerful and moving and I can't recommend it enough

I loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but Miss Benson's Beetle is even better. The characters have a richness and depth that drew me into their story immediately. And what characters! This book is far more than an unexpected adventure, it's a beautiful portrayal of female friendship in all its frailties, contradictions and strengths. It made me think we all have the power to be so much more than we imagine when we cut the chains of expectation. I actually feel as if I've just lost a positive, powerful friend - I'm cut adrift, I haven't been so immersed in a novel for years

Miss Benson's Beetle is the perfect escape novel for our troubled times, about a woman in emotional, professional and physical lockdown who breaks free to reclaim her true self. It's as funny and nourishing as a classic Ealing comedy, as feminist as your formidable great-aunt

Rachel Joyce has cornered the market in bittersweet novels about elderly eccentrics that both prick and comfort the reader

I fell in love with the unlikely friendship between two wildly different women, Enid Pretty and Margery Benson-their devotion to each other as they trek up and down mountains in someplace called New Caledonia is a hysterical delight. This novel made me realize how hungry I am for stories about women loving each other into being their best selves. Many thanks to Rachel Joyce for writing one

A beautifully written, extraordinary quest in which two ordinary, overlooked women embark on an unlikely scientific expedition to the South Seas. A classic tale of gripping adventure and friendship, told from the subversive and often hilarious female view

Whatever you may look for in a novel—adventure, fully realized characters, humor, poignancy, a chance to learn something new—is all here in Miss Benson’s Beetle. What’s also here is the particular grace and humanity that Rachel Joyce brings to her work. She reminds us that we all are broken in one way or another, but that we are capable—oftentimes in unexpected ways—of helping to make ourselves and others whole. This beautifully written novel is an absolute delight.

Bursting with the irrepressible wonder that is quintessential Rachel Joyce. Miss Benson’s Beetle is about the courage to say YES! Yes, I will. Yes, I can. Radiant, transporting, idiosyncratic, tender and shimmeringly alive (and dead!) The master of charm and delight.

Any reader accompanying Rachel Joyce on this exhilarating expedition into the far reaches of the imagination is destined to be rewarded with the richest pleasure ... An enthralling, amazing expedition into the mysteries of the human heart.

So fast-paced and fun it’ll make you remember why you loved reading in the first place. Miss Benson’s Beetle has everything: adventure, mystery, and the greatest, most unlikely friendship, all rendered in some of the most beautiful, enchanting prose you’ll ever read. It’s full of humour, pathos, and insight, extolling the virtues of love, acceptance, and hard-won self-discovery – all that gleams about the human spirit. It’ll capture you right at the beginning and hold you tight the whole way through. This book is a pure and serious joy.

Wonderful characters that I will not forget in a hurry ... This book will take you on the adventure of a lifetime. I loved every second!

As ever, Rachel Joyce made me laugh out loud, then weep for the battered majesty of ordinary human beings.
Two unlikely heroines, their strange love, a pitiful villain and a life-affirming search for miraculous beauty…
all combine in a wild, hopeful picaresque journey into the soul.

Editor's Choice: A gorgeous story about friendship, adventure and the importance of taking risks.

AUDIO BOOK OF THE WEEK

A hilarious jaunt into the wilderness of women's friendship and the triumph of outrageous dreams.

Miss Benson's Beetle is an absolute joy - a wild, funny, and breathlessly exciting adventure story that's also a moving and beautifully drawn portrait of an improbable female friendship in a world still emerging from the trauma of two world wars. Joyce writes about Margery and Enid with such tenderness and compassion, such wisdom and humour, weaving an irresistible tale of frailty and strength, curiosity and courage, grief and hope.

Margery Benson dreams of finding a mythical gold beetle in New Caledonia. So she and her irritating assistant set sail from London in 1950-and become kindred spirits during an adventure both zany and harrowing. It's a wildly original, life-affirming tale.

A book that will have you howling with laughter the one moment and wiping away tears the next - my favourite read in years. Don't miss it.