The Small Back Room

Reviews / Votes

One of the hopes of British novel-writing . . . A writer of genius -- John Betjeman The missing writer of the Forties . . . Balchin's professional skill gives a meaning to brilliance which the word doesn't usually possess -- Clive James * NEW REVIEW * [An] inexplicably neglected author * THE TIMES * Balchin writes about timeless things, the places in the heart -- Ruth Rendell * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH * A little masterpiece like Nigel Balchin's The Small Back Room speaks to our own time, but with so much literary experience behind it -- Shirley Hazzard Balchin has been absurdly overlooked for too long -- Julian Fellowes I'd place him up there with Graham Greene -- Philippa Gregory A remarkable storyteller * DAILY MAIL * A brilliant novelist . . . A writer of real skill * NEW STATESMAN * He tells a story gloriously * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Balchin has the rare magnetic power that draws the human eye from one sentence to the next * EVENING STANDARD * Probably no other novelist of Mr. Balchin's value is so eminently and enjoyably readable . . . [He] never lets the reader down -- Elizabeth Bowen * TATLER * Balchin has done so much to raise the standard of the popular novel * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT * A superb storyteller * SUNDAY TIMES * Balchin can tell an exciting story as well as any novelist alive * SUNDAY CHRONICLE * The novelist of men at work * GUARDIAN * He can always be relied on to give us the set-up magnificently * BBC * One of the best writers, and certainly one of the best stylists, to come out of the war years -- Michael Powell Perhaps the most successful British author to emerge during the war * SATURDAY EVENING POST * One of the hopes of British novel-writing . . . A writer of genius -- John Betjeman