Author:Muriel Spark

'It never really occurred to her that literary men, if they like women at all, do not want literary women but girls.'
The May of Teck Club 'exists for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years'. Nevertheless, and though there is a war on, they find the time between elocution lessons to jostle one another over suitors (some more suitable than others) and a single Schiaparelli gown. But can a love of literature, fine clothes and amorous young men save these young ladies from the horrors of the real world?
'Unsettling and exhilarating' William Boyd, Daily Telegraph
'An enduring genius' Guardian
One of this century's finest creators of the comic-metaphysical entertainment
—— The New York TimesMuriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards, decisive as a smashed glass is decisive'
—— John UpdikeCamp is a divine treat. A subversive explosion of masc/fem stereotypes wrapped inside a sparkly, funny, heartstring-plucking romance. At once delightfully cynical and buoyantly hopeful, Rosen uses Camp to take aim at everything the LGBTQ community is currently wrestling with and needs to hear.
—— Adam Sass, author of Surrender Your SonsPacked with an amazing cast of unforgettable characters, Camp is the perfect read for anyone wondering if they're too much or not enough of their true self. It's the must-read book of the summer.
—— Julian Winters, award-winning author of Running With LionsCamp is a pitch-perfect, joyfully queer take on the classic summer camp sex romp. With a loveable lead and a fabulous cast of supporting characters, it's the sweetest YA romance I've read in a long time.
—— Tom Ryan, author of Keep This to YourselfJoyful, exuberant, incisive, and terrifically queer. Camp is a romcom with bite and heart, one that examines the walls we build around ourselves - and promises us we have the power to tear them down. This is literary wizardry.
—— Adib Khorram, author of Darius the Great is Not OkayA powerful, yet nuanced, illustration of every queer person's struggle with identity, presented in Rosen's trademark blend of levity and wit. Charming and clever, this story simply sparkles.
—— Phil Stamper, author of The Gravity of UsA drag act that plays with compassion and camp
—— KirkusCamp tells a story I wish a teenage me could have lived. It took me back and allowed me to explore a place where a younger, queer me would have been safe. I love how L.C. Rosen has intertwined small moments of LGBT+ education and history whilst telling an adorable, funny and relatable story. Sweet, meaningful and at points sassy, Camp is a book for young gay adults who are ready for exploration.
—— Olly Pike, Pop'n'OllyThe trouble with being young and LGBTQIA is that you're trying to be yourself while the rest of the world is intent on turning you into someone else. With wit, warmth, and heart, Rosen deftly skewers stereotypes while acknowledging that, for some, conforming means safety. CAMP is a frank, funny and thoughtful look at teenage identity, sexuality and sensuality with vibrant characters you'll root for all the way. A bang up-to-date Judy Blume teenage rom-com for the inclusive, switched-on generation.
—— Justin Myer, aka The GuylinerA super sweet LGBTQ+ romantic comedy . . . Great fun and left me with a warm smile
—— Gscene MagazineTake the judging panel from RuPaul's Drag Race UK, blend them up and spit out a novel and that is what Camp truly is. You have the camp theatrical aspects of Alan Carr, the smut of Graham Norton, the blurred lines of gender and conservatism of RuPaul, and the loving support of a parental figure in Michelle Visage.
—— VADA MagazineBarker is a writer in a class of her own ... A work of coruscating intelligence, of deep humanity.
—— Alex Preston , ObserverBarker’s writing is very, very funny, both ha ha and strange ... Fans of Ali Smith’s 'Seasonal Quartet' will enjoy a similarly arch, detached view on the banality of contemporary Britain ... A gloriously audacious blend of, well, the deep and the trite.
—— IndependentNicola Barker has repeatedly challenged convention. And she is not stopping now.
—— Claire Lowdon , Sunday TimesIngenious ... Barker spins a series of variations on the theme of selfhood ... Barker serves up a mixture of experiment and statement, part postmodern comedy, part spiritual credo. It takes as it’s raw material the fear and panic, anxiety and suspicion, depression and despair experienced by a man who wants to sell his house, an estate agent trying to help him sell it, the child of the prospective buyer, and, via moments of authorial intrusion and a brilliant confessional finale, the novelist responsible for creating them. The book exhibits Barker’s gifts as a psychologist ... I Am Sovereign places this agonised trio within an elaborate conceptual framework ... Barker isn’t the first writer to use postmodern devices to explore questions about selfhood, but she diverges from most of her predecessors in rejecting the analogy of the self as “fiction” ... [I Am Sovereign] renders the next stage in this remarkable writer’s journey a more than usually enticing prospect.
—— Leo Robson , New StatesmanThe novel is not dead when we have writers as curious, daring and honest as Nicola Barker. Her latest is downright exquisite.
—— i NewspaperA madly brilliant little book … I loved it.
—— Daily MailIt marks a cautious pivot away from the involutions of H(A)PPY and The Cauliflower, back towards the highly distinctive take on literary realism that characterizes Barker’s earlier work.
—— Keith Miller , Times Literary SupplementGobbled all of this down all of this 209 page gem on a single long-haul flight. Set in a single 20-minute house viewing in Llandudno with a bafflingly diverse cast of characters. It shouldn’t work but I thought it was super.
—— Rick O’Shea’s Best Books of 2019 in RTE.ieKnocked me sideways … It’s so masterful and meta. The narrative style is elegant and frenetic
—— Emma Jane Unsworth , Observer[A]bsurdly well-researched, prescient and pin-sharp [...] so definitely pick it up'
—— Sirin Kale[I]t's thrillingly, DELICIOUSLY fascinating about How We Live Now. She's a MINE of information- philosophy, science, literature, stats, all pulled together in her coolly elegant prose. I could not put it down!
—— Marian KeyesThese 242 pages are an (exhaustive, though not depressing) middle-finger to the word 'should'. A word which justifies women feeling the need to constantly scrutinise every decision; in the name of self-improvement, in order to have the Best Life Possible, at a hundred miles an hour.
—— Buro247Energetic and compelling.
—— Olivia SudjicSykes stays true to "High Low" form by using a high-low mix of vocabulary ... We have all had moments of asking ourselves if we are doing "this" - gestures vaguely - right, which makes the book all the more likeable. This is a form of learning how to succeed by failing - as it admits to being human.
Pandora is my personal guru on all things relating to the zeitgeist. How lucky you are that she can now be yours too.
—— Dolly AldertonThis will spark a thousand conversations and encourage us to find our own path to contentment.
—— Best nonfiction books of 2020 , TopshopHailed as a manifesto for modern women ... packed with her trademark wit, wisdom and philosophical references (if you know her, you know), this book is the opposite of doom and gloom. Instead, her judgement free observations are reassuring, comforting and wholeheartedly uplifting.
—— Marie ClaireRushdie is a master storyteller who weaves his fictions and characters into such agreeable tapestries.
—— Sarah Hayes , TabletThe novel's dazzling virtuosity and cascade of cultural references culminate in a final moving moment of hope
—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail