Press

What the critics say

Robert Merivel is one of the great imaginative creations in English literature of the past 50 years
- Telegraph Magazine

At times witty and enchanting, on other occasions full of doubt and self-loathing, Merivel remains a stunning achievement. He is Everyman and speaks to us all
- Sunday Express

A tour de force of literary technique, a treasure house of diligent research and imaginative ingenuity
- Telegraph

Exuberance is a very hard thing to sustain in a novel… However, Tremain brings it off brilliantly. As one might expect, this is a very funny novel, full of picaresque adventure, hapless accidents and ingeniously wrought slapstick. However, it is also a very moving and beautiful novel. There are passages here which I found myself reading over and over again simply in order to savour them. Merivel: A Man of His Time may have been a long time coming, but it’s been well worth the wait
- Mail on Sunday

This book is richly marbled with intelligence, compassion and compelling characters, leavened with flourishes of lyricism and an attractive tolerance towards human frailties
- The Times

Merivel is excellent company. Writing with a mimic’s ear for conversation, whimsical one moment, grave the next, Tremain has an underlying preoccupation here: the last third of live, love and loss, loneliness and vanity
- Intelligent Life

Tremain writes beautifully about Reniassance England but it’s the glittering paradoxes of Merivel’s character that here leap fully formed from the page
- Metro

Tremain’s novel experiments continually with light and shade – she expertly paints a picture with three dimensions and real feeling
- Scotsman

What ultimately makes the book such a joy is simply being in Merivel’s company. His narration is by turns rueful, comic, despairing and joyful; but it’s always bursting with life, always good-hearted - and always entirely loveable
- Daily Mail

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

Merivel is set in 1683-85 when the English novel was barely in its infancy. Tremain relishes the freedom allowed by the Defoe-like, picaresque form…her feeling for the spirit of the times is triumphant
- Spectator

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
- Daily Telegraph

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
- Herald

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
- We Love This Book

Her characters laugh, cry, plot and flounder so convincingly that they take up residence in your head and refuse to go away
- Scotland on Sunday

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

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

A delight
- Literary Review

A rich, glowing portrait of an individual
- Observer

A glorious book of heart-warming philosophy and heart-rending sadness
- Sainsbury’s Magazine

An excellent novel...thrilling reading...incredibly entertaining
- Bookgeeks.co.uk

Surely one of the most versatile novelists writing today
- Daily Express

Vivid, original and always engaging
- The Times

Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart
- Literary Review

Steps inside the mind of Sir Robert Merivel
- Sunday Business Post

An unadulterated delight…every bit the 17th-century romp that its predecessor was; rambunctious, funny and tender, with perhaps the added quality of age-worn wisdom – both of its author and protagonist – to add to all the cavorting misadventure
- Independent

For a second time this is one to cherish
- Independent

Tremain gives us an exuberant picture of the age. Its rich fabrics, foppish clothes, food, amusements and love making are laid before us… Merivel is indeed a man of his time
- Oxford Times

Witty, bawdy, godless, tender, Tremain’s roguish 17th c physician returns for a sort-of sequel to her much loved novel, Restoration. This second dose delights, engrosses – and moves – as much as before
- Independent, i

The most enjoyable novel...a wonderfully entertaining sequel
- Guardian

This is a book about forcing jollity in the face of the transience of life
- Financial Times

In a brilliant year for historical fiction, this was the warmest, wittiest and wisest
- Daily Mail

A great pleasure this year to renew acquaintance with Robert Merivel, Rose Tremain’s engagingly roguish physician at the court of Charles II
- Tablet

Delicious in the voice of its brazen softie of an anti-hero
- Independent

[Tremain] has described writing Merivel: A Man of His Time as like meeting a dearly beloved friend not seen for years, and that is exactly as it strikes her readers. A marvelous thing on the page
- The Oldie