‘A wonderfully generous novel, several books wrapped into one, and I would have been very happy to stay with any of the strands or in any of the places it takes us to – I was particularly struck by the recreations of Edwardian London and of the London of the modern homeless. It’s an epic narrative full of energy, with the wild and joyful inventiveness of an Angela Carter story. It is enjoyable and ingenious, and I hope it will find many readers.’ – Hilary Mantel
‘The legendary pact always allures. I much enjoyed this spirited mingling of familiar wars, poverty, celebrity glitter with unearthly mischief, cynicism and self-transformations … Oddly angled history is laced with fantasy now strange, now macabre; surely an imaginative feat of storytelling.’
– Peter Vansittart
‘A brilliantly ambitious novel unlike any other; a London we recognize both lives and breathes amusingly and painfully … an absorbing read.’
– Lyndall Gordon
‘A truly remarkable novel, I read it with fascination’ – John Bayley