A vivid coming of age tale about the beautiful Avery sisters, thrust on the vaudeville stage after their father's death. Set in early 20th-century Canada, it catapults the reader into the beating heart of the travelling theatrical world - the smell of the greasepaint, heat of the spotlights, and high-wire adrenaline are near-tangible. Thrilling and moving this is a glittering jewel of a novel.

There are comforting echoes of both Little Women and Ballet Shoes in this gently absorbing novel about three middle-class sisters forced to support themselves on the American vaudeville circuit after the death of their father ... It's so atmospheric you'll want to throw flowers at the end.

The three Avery sisters ("The Belle Auroras," as they become known on the stage) begin with little in their favour besides youth and hope but each one slowly and steadily evolves into a unique and accomplished artist while navigating her way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary charmers, charlatans, eccentrics and impresarios. Lauded by Margaret Atwood as "very high quality writing," Marina Endicott's novel delves into the world of Vaudeville theatre, in all its eccentricity.

The Little Shadows is a novel about art and women, and personal fulfilment and the thrill of performing... She has written an entertaining, moving and original work.

The Little Shadows has Endicott's wry sensibility, her pithy lyricism and her skill at pulling the rug out from under the reader's feet. Like the previous novel, this one also concerns itself with big ideas: the point of art, sisterly and familial love and, as the war's shadow extends and darkens, the meaning of life itself.

I couldn't fault the characterisation ... The wedding of the characters to the era makes this book fascinating enough to make me want to go through Marina Endicott's back catalogue. I hope the Endicott home has a broad mantelpiece - if she carries on like this, the awards will keep coming.

The sisters Endicott creates are believable and beautiful, starting out with little but their raw talent and good-natured hope. The novel's charting of their progression through the world of enticing and seductive Vaudeville is wholly captivating, and so heart-warming it might make you want to take to the boards yourself. This is a novel full of glamour, charm and sultry show business, a must-read for anybody with a penchant for the bright lights and the smell of grease paint.

The Little Shadows is my book of the year. Think of your favourite stories about sisters - the gravity, levity and subtlety with which the lives of siblings are woven together; Endicott puts her own spin on that.

Phillip's writing is distinctive, audacious and powerful

Remarkable. It is a strange and joyous book which will yield much to the patient reader

Lark and Termite, Phillips' fourth novel, has high expectations to live up to. That it meets, and even surpasses, such expectations is only one of its many achievements

'A richly textured novel with a wondrous story at its heart about the many permutations of love'

compulsive, innovative, challenging

A moving meditation on the redemptive power of family and love.

The voices and structures are remarkable

Tender story

With its almost mystical exploration of love in all its forms, this is a tender portrayal of a family that proves unsinkable

Phillips's characters...are alive and intimately rendered; their warmth suffuses the novel like low-burning embers

Merivel offers a rich and satisfying sequel to the bright beginning of Restoration

More interesting than all the period decoration is the character of Merivel, a character whom the author has such deep knowledge of. Tremain’s fusion of an engrossing character and the minutiae of another time is a marvel

Tremain's control of her character and her reflective but often dramatic unfolding of events are impressive acts of authorial ventriloquism, in which she gives a nod to the great diarists of that era but carries off her own man's story with wit, grace and originality. There is only to add that, despite the linear storytelling imposed on a journal, she not only effortlessly sustains momentum and mood, but brings the novel to as near a perfect ending as one could wish

Tremain is particularly good at exploring the nuances of life for the hapless Merivel so that reader empathises with his sense of loneliness and despair. As well as exploring the sensitive side of Merivel’s character we share his intimate thoughts which are often very funny. A beautiful book

A delightful portrait of an aging man at the mercy of his own foibles and frustrations

Sequels rarely live up to their predecessors but this one comes close

A glorious book of heart-warming philosophy and heart-rending sadness

An excellent novel...thrilling reading...incredibly entertaining

Surely one of the most versatile novelists writing today

Vivid, original and always engaging

Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart

Steps inside the mind of Sir Robert Merivel

For a second time this is one to cherish

A Pepysian romp of the first order

Continues in the same superior vein as Restoration… The fusion of such an engrossing character, and the minutiae of another time, remains a marvel

In this evocative and beautifully drawn novel of family and loyalty in the face of an uncertain future Tremain continues the story of a wonderfully unique character

Hugely enjoyable

Merivel’s hapless charm remains intact in this tour de force of literary technique

A sequel that looks back to the earlier novel without ever quite recapturing its spirit is the perfect form in which to evoke that feeling of having to carry on, and of trying to make yourself have fun even with it eventually begins to hurt

A marvelllously rollicking good read, and it is such a pleasure to meet Robert Merivel again. Rose Tremain brings the character to life in a way that makes you want to find out even more about the period. Enormously skilled and deft