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Reading lists

Powerful stories that make great gifts

A photograph of Rose Tremain sitting on a white sofa, wearing a white blazer

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Interviews

How a brush with death helped inspire Rose Tremain’s new novel

Sacred Country: a novel ahead of its time

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Features

A Tale of Revenge from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Lily

Lily, in addition to its pellucid prose, is shamelessly gripping

Tremain's latest novel more than lives up to its atmospheric, riveting beginning... It's consummate storytelling, and finds room for redemption as well as revenge

Another memorable and engrossing read from Tremain, which brings Victorian London, and especially courageous Lily, to life on the page

A heartbreaking story set in Victorian England from the pitch-perfect pen of Rose Tremain

Tremain's gift is to create characters whose experiences span every walk of life, but who are grounded in their author's understanding of the world

Enthralling... Tremain evokes Victorian London with visceral intensity in a gripping and deeply humane novel exploring themes of rejection, poverty, guilt and redemption

It's more than gratifying to open [Tremain's] new novel, Lily, and immediately see that she is still writing at full throttle... This is the literary equivalent of all your favourite Christmas telly programmes rolled into one... Lily's story is a winter's tale: a cosy pageturner that will whisk you away from the 21st century while engaging and sharpening your mind.

No writer can inhabit the skin of a historical period and bring it so pulsatingly alive as Rose Tremain. No one can break your heart quite like this. In this compassionate, generous, soaringly beautiful book, Tremain is at the top of her game. Read and be transported

Lily is an ingenious blend of historical novel, moral fable and fairy story. Tremain, a pre-eminent historical novelist, vividly evokes the disparate social worlds of Victorian London... Lily is a tale not just of revenge but of redemption, which carries an intense emotional charge. Tremain again displays her supreme ability to create characters who are at once totally true to the period and instantly identifiable to the modern reader

Lily is the perfect heroine, courageous and bold

Full of evocative detail and memorable characters

Lily is a wonderful creation - diffident and trying to find her place in the world... But it's Tremain's attention to detail that really sets this novel apart

An authentically melodramatic whydunnit set in Victorian London

Tremain has created a feisty, rebellious heroine in the style of Jane Eyre and Maggie Tulliver, in a setting that owes much to Dickens... a very engaging read

A heart-wrenching tale that blends historical detail, moral fable and fairy story with a powerful heroine at its helm

Fans of Dickens's heart-tugging Little Dorrit should enjoy this powerful exploration of the human urge to seek places of sanctuary in a pitiless, fickle world. Perfect fireside reading - but better keep a hankie ready

Tremain brilliantly conjures up the atmosphere of Victorian London while the story is cleverly structured to keep the reader guessing to the end

Rose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music &amp; Silence), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Sacred Country) and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Islands of Mercy. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

From Sunday Times bestselling novelist Rose Tremain comes a gripping novel of murder and revenge set in Victorian England 
 
Nobody knows yet that she is a murderer... 
 
 London, 1850. On a freezing winter's night, a baby is abandoned at the gates of a park only to be saved by a young policeman and taken to the Foundling Hospital. 
 
After suffering years of brutal hardship at the Hospital, Lily is released into the world of Victorian London. But she is hiding a dreadful secret... 
 
When Lily and the policeman meet again, Lily is convinced that he holds the key to her happiness. But might he also be the one to uncover her crime and so condemn her to death? 
 
'Enthralling... Tremain evokes Victorian London with visceral intensity in a gripping and deeply humane novel exploring themes of rejection, poverty, guilt and redemption' Observer

Islands of Mercy

From the bestselling author of The Gustav Sonata

An audacious novel about destiny and desire from the incomparable Rose Tremain

'A hell of a read' Sunday Times 
 
'Triumphant, and beautifully told...one of the best novelists writing today' Sara Collins, Guardian 
 
All must gamble with their fate. But not all can win... 
 
In the city of Bath, in the year 1865 Jane Adeane, renowned for her restorative skills, is convinced that some other destiny will one day show itself to her. 
 
But when she finds herself torn between a dangerous affair with a female lover and the promise of a conventional marriage to an apparently respectable doctor, her desires begin to lead her towards a future she had never imagined... 
 
Discover the ultimate historical read. 
 
'Terrific' The Times 
 
'One of our most accomplished novelists' Observer 
 
'One of my favourite writers' Nina Stibbe

A hell of a read - so emotionally sophisticated, so deft with shade and light, more absorbing than most fiction I've read this year

Another gratifyingly well-put-together work... Tremain's long sentences brim with a poised positivity...[and] add lightness to her fond depictions of these imperfect strivers

Subtle, illuminating and captivating

A moving exploration of love and the sacrifices we're willing to make in its name

Over a distinguished literary career, Rose Tremain has traversed genres with her customary flair... in her portrayal of the ways in which individual longing and frustration unfold against the constraints of forces beyond our control, Tremain has long been one of our most accomplished novelists, and here is further confirmation

An exhilarating exploration of love, life, loss and death... A thrilling and seductive story... Vivid and beguiling

Rose Tremain gives Hilary Mantel a run for her money for the title of Britain's greatest living historical novelist... there are still few writers who can conjure up a version of the past that is so startlingly unfamiliar yet so convincing

A new book from Rose Tremain is always a cause for celebration. Her exceptionally well-crafted and deeply humane historical novels are invariably a joy and Islands of Mercy is no exception... A rich, rewarding and highly satisfying novel from one of our finest novelists.

Vivid, transgressive, explicit and kaleidoscopic

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lily

Restoration

Now reissued with a stunning new jacket look, Restoration is the bestselling classic which introduced us to the young Robert Merivel and his rise and fall through glittering seventeenth-century society

For a vivid – and funny – fictional re-creation of the era, Tremain’s Restoration is hard to beat.

To be moved and impressed by a novel and yet so entertained, is rare

A dazzling triumph… It is nothing less than superb

Witty, exciting and evocative. Restoration is a wonderful book

Headstrong, ambitious and lustful...Tremain reinvents the historical novel with flamboyant wit and vivid energy

Rose Tremain (Author, Introducer) Rose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music &amp; Silence) the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina in France (Sacred Country) and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Lily, a Richard and Judy Book Club selection. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

The bestselling classic from a 'magnificent story-teller' (Independent on Sunday). Journey to the glittering seventeenth-century court, and witness the rise and fall of young, charming Robert Merivel... 
 
When a twist of fate delivers an ambitious young medical student to the court of King Charles II, he is suddenly thrust into a vibrant world of luxury and opulence. Blessed with a quick wit and sparkling charm, Robert Merivel rises quickly, soon finding favour with the King, and privileged with a position as ‘paper groom’ to the youngest of the King’s mistresses. But by falling in love with her, Merivel transgresses the one rule that will cast him out from his new-found paradise… 
 
'For a vivid – and funny – fictional re-creation of the era, Tremain’s Restoration is hard to beat.' The Times 
 
Rose Tremain has sold over one million copies of her books.

A Man of His Time

Merivel

Now reissued with a stunning new jacket look, Merivel is a dazzling novel about loyalty and dreams set in Restoration England

One of the great imaginative creations in English literature

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

Her feeling for the spirit of the times is triumphant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart

Steps inside the mind of Sir Robert Merivel

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

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

Rose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music &amp; Silence) the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina in France (Sacred Country) and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Lily, a Richard and Judy Book Club selection. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

‘One of the great imaginative creations in English literature’ Daily Telegraph 
 
A dazzling novel of loyalty and dreams set in Restoration England. 
 
The gaudy years of the Restoration are long gone and Robert Merivel, physician and courtier to King Charles II, sets off for the French court in search of a fresh start. But royal life at the Palace of Versailles – all glitter in front and squalor behind – leaves him in despair, until a chance encounter with the seductive Madame de Flamanville, allows him to dream of a different future. 
 
But will that future ever be his? Summoned home urgently to attend to the ailing King, Merivel finds his loyalty and skill tested to their limits. 
 
Rose Tremain has sold over one million copies of her books. 
 
PRAISE FOR MERIVEL 
‘This book is richly marbled with intelligence, compassion and compelling characters’ The Times 
'Magnificent story-teller' Independent on Sunday 
‘Wonderfully entertaining’ Michael Holroyd, Guardian Books of the Year

From the Sunday Times bestselling author

The Way I Found Her

Now reissued with a stunning new jacket look 'This novel has the sparkle of sunlight on water...once more Rose Tremain beguiles you into suspending disbelief' Independent on Sunday

A scary, funny and ultimately very affecting novel... Tremain lets us glimpse the adult-in-waiting; reminds us that life - tinged with joy, sex, pain - takes its whole shape from such moments

The Way I Found Her is a magical invention of page-turning suspense, of sadness, grief and passion, whose sure and delicate exposure of a sensibility flowering one hot Parisian summer teaches us the price of experience. Do not miss it

'A magical invention of page-turning suspense, of sadness, grief and passion' The Times 
 
Lewis Little, precocious thirteen-year-old, is spending summer in Paris with his mother, Alice. 
 
Alice is translating the latest medieval romance by Valentina Gavrilovich, the bestselling and exotic Russian émigré. Lewis is there to make his first acquaintance with one of the greatest cities in the world; neither can foresee the momentous events that lie in wait for them. 
 
Valentina slowly casts a spell over Lewis, but when her past begins to encroach on all their lives and, as this enchanted world is gradually lost, Lewis is driven on a terrifying quest.

Evangelista's Fan

Now reissued with a stunning new jacket look, Evangelista's Fan 'goes on resonating in your memory after you have shut the book' Independent

A master class in the art of storytelling

Tremain is elegant, cool and teasing...she is an extremely accomplished writer, ingenious and acute, compassionate and always in control

A perfect demonstration of Rose Tremain's beguilingly original and quirky mind and her ability to set words on paper in the most spellbinding way

In this superb collection of short stories she displays a dazzling versatility... Rose Tremain's writing has a rare subtlety. And her imagination is extraordinary

‘A master class in the art of storytelling’ Observer 
 
This short story collection demonstrates the enormous range of Tremain’s talent and imagination. 
 
The teasing and brilliant title story, Evangelista's Fan, is set in a disturbing dreamlike version of Regency London, where a young italian clockmaker contrives a magical means, not only of repairing time, but also of unlocking the mechanism of sexual happiness. 
 
Here is history - Agincourt as seen by the herald who rides between the two camps - alongside such contemporary issues as mortgage debt and medical error. 
 
Here are stories set in Cornwall, Corsica, Nashville, Niagara and an unidentified city which conjures up any and every Western European capital. 
 
Here are the obstinate dreams of the old and the passionate struggles of the young; here is heartbreak and humour; and here, above all, is love in its many and varied forms.

Rose Tremain

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER: 
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

A slim, funny, elegantly breezy coming-of-age story

A complex tale of becoming that’s moving, evocative and mesmerising in its acuity

An electrifying, word-perfect tale… Gently devastating, devastatingly beautiful

An engrossing character study ... But it is also a study in tolerance and kindness, and as such is more relevant to today’s reader than it might first seem

Written with piercing clarity and gentle humour, Absolutely And Forever is a study of the messiness of human relationships, the significance of secrets unspoken and the impact of the choices we make

This is a book about the comic, painful, life-long search for human understanding. Not a word is wasted; not a phrase trite. It is mesmerising, masterly and profoundly moving

Rose Tremain… is back on form with Absolutely and Forever

[A] delicate, generous-hearted novel

From page 4 of Absolutely and Forever we are swept back to the 1960s ... Skill and insouciance

There are only a handful of writers whose novels I read on publication day. Rose Tremain is one of them

An electrifying, word-perfect tale ... [A] gently devastating, devastatingly beautiful novel

PRAISE FOR ROSE TREMAIN: 
 
One of my favourite writers

Tremain is one of the best novelists writing today

Pulsatingly alive. . . no one can break your heart quite like this

Rose Tremain's fiction is my gold-standard

This is not the kind of book you would expect from an 80-year-old dame, but Rose Tremain has always surprised and delighted her readers…a slim, funny, elegantly breezy coming-of-age story… [and] Tremain’s most personal novel yet

A brilliant evocation of growing up in the 1960s, which will ring true for those of us who lived through the period… Highly recommended

[A] delightful book… Tremain’s novel is just as much about friendship as the ruinous effects of romance. There’s far more to this story than meets the eye

‘Gorgeous’ Observer * ‘Profoundly moving’ Financial Times * ‘Electrifying’ Daily Mail 
 
How do you find the courage to make your own life? An electrifying novel about first love set in 1960s London from the bestselling Rose Tremain 
 
Marianne is fifteen when she falls helplessly and absolutely in love with Simon. Simon owns a Morris Minor, is in his final year at school and has a dazzling future ahead of him. Desperate to escape the stifling 1950s suburbs she has been raised in, Marianne feels sure she will be able to find true happiness with him. 
 
However a twist of fate sees Simon’s glittering future dashed and with it Marianne’s dreams. He flees the country and Marianne, realising she will now have to make a life of her own, moves to London determined to reinvent herself. But Marianne cannot let go of that first all-encompassing love and all the while Simon is in Paris, nursing a secret that will alter everything. 
 
‘A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… Remarkable… Tremain shows us the things that make every human life extraordinary’ The Times 
 
‘A complex tale of becoming that’s moving, evocative and mesmerising in its acuity’ Mail on Sunday 
 
A Sunday Times Book of the Year * Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction * 
 
READERS LOVE ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER: 
 
'Heartrending, funny, unputdownable' 5***** 
 
'An undoubted modern classic' 5***** 
 
'Marianne will remain with me as a friend' 5***** 
 
'A masterclass in character and world building ... the writing is just sublime' 5*****

Rose Tremain

Praise for Absolutely and Forever

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

Books by Rose Tremain

Articles featuring Rose Tremain

Powerful stories that make great gifts

How a brush with death helped inspire Rose Tremain’s new novel

Sacred Country: a novel ahead of its time

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Praise for Absolutely and Forever

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER: 'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER: 'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER: 'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

Books by Rose Tremain

Articles featuring Rose Tremain

Powerful stories that make great gifts

How a brush with death helped inspire Rose Tremain’s new novel

Sacred Country: a novel ahead of its time

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'

PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
'Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving'