The best read for years

This is a beautifully written novel. Piers Alexander brings 17th century England to vivid life with its smells, sounds and colours in exceptionally brilliant prose, wrapping a moving and compelling tale I simply could not put down. I can’t categorise him, his is a style entirely of his own – but perhaps a mixture of Terry Pratchett, Irvine Welsh and Simon Schama would be half way there. It is sometimes funnier, often darker and more historically and affectionately detailed.