King of the Badgers

Praise for The Northern Clemency:

'Hensher is an anatomist of familial tensions and marshals his large cast of characters deftly. He has an impeccable eye for nuances of character and setting, and the details of Seventies food and decor are lovingly done: the mushroom vol-au-vents, the white wall units with brown smoked glass...an engaging and hugely impressive novel.' The Times

'The Northern Clemency - vast, compendious, wearing its ambition like an outsize boutonniere - makes a virtue of its exactness, its recapitulative zeal, its absolute determination to jam everything in and sit unshiftably on the lid.' Independent on Sunday

'Hensher has a forensic eye for detail, providing nightmarish glimpses of the everyday...engrossing, amusing and moving.' Independent

'An epic novel.' Guardian

'Hensher is fascinating good on how social transformation manifests itself in the textures, colours and manners of a culture...extremely funny, but also deeply humane.' The Sunday Times.

A remarkable novel...Hensher's technique of shifting continually from voice to voice, the third-person narrative perceived from the viewpoint of each character in turn, gives a cumulative effect of luminous richness, like a perfect piece of orchestration...but there is something more than brilliant cleverness that makes this novel extraordinary.' Sunday Times

'Hensher's is a bold, impressively sustained attempt to mark a transitional phase in modern Englishness as seen largely from the domestic sphere.' TLS

'A beautifully written book...as impressive in its scope as in the effortless artistry of the language. Its characters are well-defined and plausible, while the narrative is leavened with deftly observed humour that gently pokes its lower-middle class protagonists in the ribs.' Scotland on Sunday

Philip Hensher's new book shows that the epic, exciting, deeply engaged novel of society is not dead in England. Andrew O'Hagan

Philip Hensher is a columnist for the Independent, arts critic for the Spectator and a Granta Best of Young British novelist. He has written six novels, including The Mulberry Empire and the Booker-shortlisted The Northern Clemency, and one collection of short stories. He lives in South London.