The Old Romantic

Reviews / Votes

Channels the rough music of everyday life with a tragicomic subtlety, a pin-sharp ear for dialogue and a flair for every nuance of character and class. Louise Dean's fearless, frank and darkly comic novels have brought a fresh colour and character to English fiction -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * Dark, scurrilous and richly comic. There is so much to treasure in this terrific book, but its deepest joy is the sharp, perceptive writing * Financial Times * Dean is able to demonstrate her unobtrusive skill as the creator of comic set-pieces...painfully funny * The Sunday Times * Very appealing...so vivid are the quintessentially British characters and the snappy, well-observed dialogue. Delightful, eccentric * Observer * Dean's observations have a lyrical intensity few can match * Guardian * A warm-hearted comedy of bad manners * Daily Mail * Dean writes with beautifully controlled clarity about family ties, social class, the generation gap and the vanished England of the past. She's extremely funny, but also humane and moving * The Times * Sharply observed * Psychologies * Compassionate and amusing * The Times Literary Supplement *