He was a genuine comic writer, probably the best after P. G. Wodehouse ... He had a lasting influence and was a very good novelist

So deliciously written that it's worth re-reading to savour the images she conjures up...it's a joy to read

We're lucky to have such an intelligent chronicler of our present - and of the dirty, noisy beauty of contemporary London

Easy to read and oddly compelling...a memorable, and very clever, book

Funny and real as well as impressively sympathetic...this perceptive, engaging little novel says a great deal about human vulnerability, resilience and the passivity that too often goes unnoticed.

The book is studded with gem-like observations of this privileged English family, whose preoccupations are 'schooling, property and the form of things'. Davey brilliantly observes the mix of obstinacy and pride - the fortitude - required to survive such a heritage. By Battersea Bridge is itself a kind of verbal still life, with exquisite and revelatory strokes wherever you look

Anita is an immediately recognisable psychological type, the product of a pressurized upbringing… This personality type is realistically portrayed as every detail in the novel, down to the smell of boiling turkey stock in her ageing parents’ Hampshire home.

Stylish and mesmerising.

The glinting briskness of Davey's prose, the acuteness of her observations and the crispness of her wit keep the pages swiftly turning

Davey is a subtle and delicate writer, and this is an excellent study of modern alienation

A subtle and beautifully written book that succeeds at the difficult task of capturing how real life actually feels