From The Persephone Quarterly Winter 2003 No. 20

' I’m afraid I didn’t take the advice of the critic who suggested reading a book of short stories slowly because I’ve just gulped down Tea with Mr Rochester over the weekend. I enjoyed it very much, the stories were all so unusual I felt I had to read quite slowly so as not to miss anything. The details were so important. I particularly enjoyed ‘Violet’, ‘The Little Willow’, ‘The Chosen and the Rejected’ and ‘Lucinda’. The touches of the supernatural in some of the stories were well-handled and not everything was spelled out, which is why I found myself re-reading bits, and I’m sure I will re-read the whole collection.’ LB, Australia

‘I have just finished The Carlyles at Home, which I found quite fascinating in its detail, particularly as I have visited the house in Chelsea.’ RW, Newcastle

‘I loved Hostages to Fortune – what spare writing and how relevant it still seems today... Your books arrive like a little oasis.’ S C-T, Alton

‘I read The Wise Virgins almost at a sitting. Wonderful, so intriguingly interesting about Virginia, Vanessa, the whole scene and such an excellent novel - so very much of the time.’ BB, Nethy Bridge

‘You were absolutely right about The Priory – a simply gorgeous read in the tradition of the great Victorians. Dorothy Whipple is just so clever with characters, very, very satisfying. I was also given Greenery Street, a delightful upmarket Diary of a Nobody, and The Making of a Marchioness, as well as having some very sharp insights into the Victorian marriage/cattle market, had all the readability and suspense of Rebecca.’ HC, London SE25

‘I found Few Eggs and No Oranges no cosy fireside read but a most moving record of triumphing in adversity by a courageous, compassionate, very intelligent middle-aged spinster whose love was for all living things.’ TF, Pangbourne

‘Hostages to Fortune is one of the loveliest family novels I have ever read. And so authentic to the life of raising three children, in whatever decade.’ EH, USA

‘I have much enjoyed the cassette of Cheerful Weather for the Wedding and can’t admire Miriam Margolyes’s many voices too much. ’ MP, Hale

‘Lettice Delmer is an amazing novel! It is remarkably rich in detail, and convincingly various in dialogue for such a short book, and this seems to be helped along by the economy of verse. It also struck me that being in verse made it all the more like a film – the quick cuts from scene to scene were managed in much the same way, and more efficiently than in prose fiction. ’
JR, Santa Barbara

‘Manja is a really gripping and unusual book which I think will be one of my favourites. ’ DM, Dover

‘ I loved Someone at a Distance – there was such a sense of inevitablility and the character were described with such delicacy.’ RH, Coventry