`Superbly readable...an assured and strange masterpiece.' Sunday Telegraph
'One of the best English novels of the 20th century.' Diana Athill, The Oldie
`Hilary Mantel has soaked herself in the history of the period...and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days.' Daily Telegraph
`I cannot think of a historical novel as good as this until one goes back to Marguerite Yourcenar's "Memoirs of Hadrian", published forty years ago.' Evening Standard
`Marvellous...It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Hilary Mantel captures it all.' Time Out
`Intriguing...She has grasped what made these young revolutionaries - and with them the French Revolution - tick.' Independent
`Crafty tensions, twists and high drama...a bravura display of her endlessly inventive, eerily observant style.' Times Literary Supplement
`An extraordinary and overwhelming novel...immensely detailed and yet fast-moving...she has set herself to capture the excitement and intellectual fervour of the period. She does it admirably...a tour de force.' Scotsman
'Riveting...the book overflows with a natural storyteller's energy.' New Yorker
`Much, much more than a historical novel, this is an addictive study of power, and the price that must be paid for it...a triumph.' Cosmopolitan
'This is a high-class historical blockbuster.' Red Magazine
`Hilary Mantel has pulled off the apparently impossible...an ambitious, gripping epic.' Vogue