Anna Ralph's debut novel is moving, astute and arrestingly readable. I couldn't put it down.

Strong and evocative, with a rewarding depth of emotion ... a direct, sensuous feel which I liked very much; it has a touch of D.H. Lawrence about it. I felt as if I was standing - or sinking - on that floating island.

A straightforward, frankly sensual debut that explores dependency, responsibility, guilt and desire with assured clarity

Compassionate and beautifully written

In making fiction out of the excesses of his Puritan ancestors, Hawthorne anticipated the technique of a modern movie-director. He was a master of crowd scenes

[Nathaniel Hawthorne] recaptured, for his New England, the essence of Greek tragedy

A genius ... Elusive, delicate but lasting

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

The greatest comic writer ever

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

Sublime comic genius

You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in

Lovely

Moving and intelligent

Magnetic, unpretentious and bursting with one-liners

Jewell's readability and emotional intelligence make her the cream of pop fiction

Fans of chick-lit will understand when I say that this is a book you simply disappear into