Stella Gibbons's gift is very special

[Gibbons] has not only charm but something far better, perspicacity

[Gibbons has] a marvellous eye for the social scene - no-one is more accurate

A sexy romp to brighten up a dull January

A riotous, addictive read.****

Fabulously escapist and one hell of a page-turner, it's definitely the most fun you'll get for £6.99 this January... The best cure we've found for the January blues

The novel's steamier encounters might make even Jilly fans blush

Book of the Week

The novel's racier encounters might make even Jilly fans blush

Simon infuses it, bit by bit, with the expectation of a gratifying conclusion, one that rewards an indomitable romantic and parental love for its many surprises

Readers of Rachel Simon's fiction know that she's a hopeful romantic. Her work is smart and laced with sweetness, presenting an optimistic view even when her subject matter is bleak. It's a perspective Simon achieves, in part, by taking an unexpected angle on her subject - and subjects. She brings an anthropologist's eye to her stories, describing characters, action, and emotion as if she were new to the weary world. By seeing anew what comes naturally to most of us - cognition, memory, hearing, speech - Simon illuminates her characters' interior lives and finds new and forgotten meaning in familiar symbols. The novel's resolution is unexpected and satisfying, allowing for empathy with Lynnie's conflicted family, who ' put her away.' Simon's thorough research, detailed in an author's note, is evident in her careful crafting of this moving story. Those readers familiar with her insightful memoir, Riding the Bus with my Sister, will find this new fictional work an opportune meeting of author and material

Improbably beautiful

A gripping yet tender storyline that unfolds as the insurmountable obstacles are faced with bravery and loyalty. You're sure to be reaching for the tissues

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

A treat of a read, not least because of the wonderful, rolling ease with which Lodge writes. Or, rather, with which it reads - prose like this does not come without effort.

Sex-charged whopper on the life and works of HG Wells

Colourful characters and outrageous events abound. Confident, pacy writing keeps the reader wondering what Wells will get up to next and pondering the complex relationships to which he seems addicted

Very, very good.... So confidently are facts and flights of imaginative fancy interwoven that readers will find themselves unwilling - and unable - to distinguish between the two

Consistently absorbing and enjoyable. I doubt whether a better way could have been found to bring the phenomenon that was H. G. Wells to life

Biographical fiction is on an upswing, to judge by this lively novel, faithful to the facts but free to interpret feelings

A Man of Parts has the lovely, loquacious qualities that typify eccentric wonders such as The War of the Worlds and The History of Mr Polly. David Lodge reminds us that Wells, an imperfect man, is still a worthy witness to his own world and to those worlds that may yet to come.

Lodge understands the Edwardian literary and political scene extremely well, and traces Wells's entanglements with the louche world of Fabians and free lovers with real intimacy

As protean, elusive but compelling as it's hero, David Lodge's bio-novel about HG Wells breaks all the rules but still grips the reader - like Wells himself

A wry, racy and absorbing biographical novel

Lodge knows how to tease the inner man out from behind the historical figure, subjecting Wells to probing interviews throughout the book in which his deeper beliefs and contradictions are laid bare

This fictionalised version of HG Wells dramatises the author's life, which was full of politics, writing and women

David Lodge's HG Wells was both a visionary and a chancer; as arrogant as he was insecure; with as many noble goals as base instincts; a mass of very human contradictions; as Lodge has it, a man of parts