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A Novel
by D. J. Taylor
As the shadows lengthen over the June grass, all England is heading for Epsom Down - high life and low life, society beauties and White chapel street girls, bookmakers and gypsies, hawkers and thieves. Hopes are high, nerves are taut, hats are tossed in the air - this is Derby Day.
For months people have been waiting and plotting for this day. Everyone's eyes are on champion horse Tiberius, on whose performance half a dozen destinies depend. In this rich and exuberant novel, rife with the idioms of Victorian England, the mysteries pile high, propelling us toward the day of the great race, and we wait with bated breath as the story gallops to a finish that no one expects.
"Starred Review. Taylor's rich atmospheric details of British society, confident narrative voice, and brisk pacing create an entertaining Dickensian novel." - Publishers Weekly
"A sprawling and expansive novel that will appeal to those who like leisurely paced narratives with authentic 19th-century flavor. " - Kirkus Reviews
"Derby Day is a triumphant success. In this unputdownable Victorian romp Taylor enjoyably proves himself to be one of the finest of our 21st-century novelists." - Financial Times
"Taylor has written an exceptionally clever 19th-century novel with a richness of character that almost matches his models of Dickens and Thackeray." - Sunday Times, London
"Derby Day will be hard to put down. As ever with Taylor, literary complexities lurk under the smooth surface of a stylish page-turner." - Condé Nast Traveler
This information about Derby Day was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
D. J. Taylor was born in Norwich in 1960. He is a novelist, critic and acclaimed biographer. His Orwell: The Life won the Whitbread Biography of the Year for 2003. His novel is Kept: a Victorian Mystery was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. He is married to novelist Rachel Hore and lives in England.
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