- Published: 11 January 2011
- ISBN: 9781446426784
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 416
142 Strand
A Radical Address in Victorian London
- Published: 11 January 2011
- ISBN: 9781446426784
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 416
[Ashton] comes close to creating something far more original than a standard biography: not a romance, but the real-life equivalent of a Victorian multi-plot novel; a web of human connections that comes closer than any recent historical study to capturing the spirit of the age
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, New Statesman
A truly marvellous evocation of a group of people living at the centre of Victorian life. She draws a picture so vivid it is like a novel; so detailed and dramatic in all its emotional twists and turns that we feel we are living through its story. ..a real page turner
Daily Mail
On the intellectual debates...that exercised these characters she is excellent, describing books and linking ideas with panache. There are, too, many moments when the story of 142 Strand comes very vividly to life
Matthew Sturgis, Sunday Telegraph
Rivetingly entertaining
AN Wilson, Observer, Books of the Year
Rosemary Ashton tells his story [John Chapman's] with both aplomb and scholarship. Anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of London's intellectual life at this time will find her book indispensable
Simon Heffer, Spectator
This is a portrait skilfully drawn in the round...brilliantly captured
Rosemary Hill, Sunday Times
Wonderfully researched and absorbing account
Philip Hoare, Observer