Pax

'John Harvey, who is fascinated by the creative process involved in the making of art, finds the perfect subject in Rubens' painting "Peace and War" and its themes that intrigue and inspire a contemporary English artist. The result is a many-layered novel, impressively skillful and deeply absorbing.’ANITA DESAI The Plate Shop - `Not merely unusual but also very good – precise, subtle, authoritative and unexpectedly exciting.’ HERMIONE LEE, Observer Coup d'Etat - 'What a treat . . . stylish, politically interesting and immensely readable.' NINA BAWDEN, Daily Telegraph 'Tolstoyan . . . a wide-ranging, detailed and sympathetic portrayal of a whole society.' ANTHONY THWAITE, Observer The Legend of Captain Space - 'An impeccably spare prose… It is hard to say precisely why this bare narrative is so memorable and haunting. It is partly because of the assurance with which Harvey chooses the details of life we are given. He gives us things in a few lines -- a human body, a crying child, a heavy lorry, so that we are made to see them simultaneously as the characters see them, and from some huge distance, as perfected instances of some terrible mystery of human existence.' A.S. BYATT, Independent; 'Compelling and enjoyable . . . John Harvey writes with consistent authority. The prose is spare, evocative and effective… In his prose, which is at once stylized, rhythmical and unadorned, Mr Harvey recalls Hemingway; it is a prose which commands attention by its laconic denial of any flourish; a prose which as it were steps modestly back into the limelight.' ALLAN MASSIE, Scotsman The Subject of a Portrait - 'Excellent; I was taken by every page; more, every sentence. It is beautifully and startlingly written, the sudden shifts and turns, impulse and counter-impulse within and from these remarkable people. A very fine love story.' CHRISTOPHER RICKS