From the reviews of Fanny Burney:
‘Undoubtedly a rich subject, [Burney] has been lucky in her biographer. Claire Harman has cast a cool, dispassionate and perceptive eye on the life, the work and the London which was Burney’s world … if a biography may claim perfect pitch, this one can … It is a lively, unsentimental book; it is also a good story difficult to put down and replete with colourful characters … As a vivid portrait of a singular personality, this excellent, assured study is about as close as it is possible to get to the raw, energetic satiric genius of Fanny Burney’
EILEEN BATTERSBY, Irish Times
‘A beautifully executed biography, giving an object lesson in bringing a life into the right proportion for the reader’
DAVID SEXTON, Evening Standard Books of the Year
‘It is rare for a reviewer these days to complain that a biography is too short, but for once I could have done with a couple of hundred pages more’
ANDREW MARR, Observer
‘Written with a marvellous mix of historical clarity and warm affection’
CHARLES NICHOLL, BBC History Magazine Books of the Year
‘First-rate. [Harman] shows great sensitivity and insight in deciphering the peculiarities of eighteenth-century sexual mores … she has really got to the bottom of this elusive authoress’
FRANK MCLYNN, Herald (Glasgow)