Press

What the critics say

Late last year the time came to pick 2012’s ‘new face’ for books: I read a pile of first novels and enjoyed a few, but there was only one I adored, and that was The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry…
It is a funny book, a wise book, a charming book – but never cloying. It’s a book with a savage twist, - and yet never seems manipulative. Perhaps because Harold himself is just wonderful…
This book may follow a pattern set by another radio dramatist-turned-novelist, David Nicholls, whose One Day has now sold more than a million copies and been made into a successful film simply because one reader said to another ‘I love this book’ over and over again. So I’m telling you now: I love this book.
- The Times

Deploying meticulously precise and deceptively light-as-air prose, Joyce takes Harold across the bitter wastelands of regret to the sunlit uplands of emotional redemption with a ­clarity that is at times almost unbearably moving.
- The Sunday Times

Distinguished by remarkable confidence... Polished to perfection... Joyce's experience as a playwright shows in her ear for dialogue and eye for character diatom - even the walk-on parts stay with you as real people. She handles her material with deceptive lightness but Harold's journey towards a better version of himself is totemic. To read about him is to be moved to follow him.
- The Telegraph

This cleverly done, admirably clear-sighted novel skirts the sloughs of saccharine and whimsy, coming to an almost unbearably moving conclusion. An instant book-group classic.
- Daily Mail

Life-affirming delight. A comic pleasure.
- Woman and Home

The book that will make you look good on the bus - but be warned: you're bound to have a little cry...
- Heat

Star Read of the Week
- Grazia

From the moment I met Harold Fry, I didn't want to leave him. Impossible to put down.
- The Times

The odyssey of a simple man, original, subtle and touching.
- Claire Tomalin

A magical, moving and uplifting tale about a man's journey across Britain and into his own heart.
- Deborah Moggach

A wonderful book ... Full of sadness, hope, and ultimately love. I found it very moving.
- Esther Freud

Harold Fry is infuriating, hilarious and completely out of his depth, but I held my breath at his every blister and cramp and, felt, as if by turning the pages, I might help his impossible quest succeed. Marvellous!
- Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

Tender and funny, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry shows that even our frailties can be uplifting and redemptive.
- Edward Stourton

This book is like a naive painting: simple and profound. It is a moving story , full of heart, laced through with wry wit. I loved Harold and Maureen and their separate journeys. It felt like a celebration of being alive, being human. Beautiful!
- Niamh Cusack

Harold's unlikely pilgrimage takes him the length of the country - and into the deepest parts of himself. This beautifully written tale is by turns funny, touching, farcical and heroic. A very unusual and uplifting debut.
- Isabel Wolff

THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY isn't just a book I enjoyed reading, it's a book I feel lucky to have read. It takes the most ordinary and unassuming of men and turns him into a hero for us all. Harold Fry faces the same questions we all do as we age, questions about the meaning of our lives, faith and love, but confronts them in a most surprising way. To go on this journey with him will not only break your heart, it might also just heal it.
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- Tiffany Baker

A tender, funny debut about second chances and regained love as a man takes to the road on an unusual quest.
- Marie Claire

A delightfully original and engaging debut.
- Rebecca Frayn

Really enjoyable ... by turns moving, charming and very funny.
- Hugh Dennis

I loved this book. I loved its purity, its brutality and unerring honesty. I don't think I have read such richly composed metaphors before. They are like shooting stars glittering across each page. I can't believe this is her first novel- I wait with bated breath for her next.
- Natascha McElhone

Heartwarming and satisfying, with descriptions of the natural world reminiscent of Miss Read. There is sadness but there is also hope and love.
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There’s tremendous heart in this debut novel by Rachel Joyce, as she probes questions that are as simple as they are profound: Can we begin to live again, and live truly, as ourselves, even in middle age, when all seems ruined? Can we believe in hope when hope seems to have abandoned us? I found myself laughing through tears, rooting for Harold every step of his journey. I’m still rooting for him.
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Joyce has an unerring ability to convey profound emotions in simple, unaffected language...An original, quietly courageous testament to the inhuman effort of being normal.
- the Guardian

When it seems almost too late, Harold Fry opens his battered heart and lets the world rush in. This funny, poignant story about an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey moved and inspired me.
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A brilliant and charming novel: full of comic panache yet acute and poignant.
- The Spectator

A complete joy.
- Sainsbury's Magazine

Wonderful
- the Guardian

I loved this touching and charming novel which made me laugh and sob. Torn between prolonging every last moment of it or devouring it in one sitting, I could not help but choose the latter. Now, days later, I am mourning the loss of Harold Fry's quietly heroic companionship.
- Sunday Express

Accomplished BBC playwright Joyce’s debut novel is a gentle and genteel charmer, brimming with British quirkiness yet quietly haunting in its poignant and wise examination of love and devotion. Sure to become a bookclub favorite.
- Booklist