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Review
`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 Traveller
`meticulously plotted and written with bouncy confidence.'
--Spectator
`Derby Day is a triumphant success...in this unputdownable Victorian romp [Taylor] enjoyable proves himself to be one of the finest of our 21st-century novelists.'
--Financial Times
`meticulously plotted and written with bouncy confidence.' --Spectator
`Derby Day is a triumphant success...in this unputdownable Victorian romp [Taylor] enjoyable proves himself to be one of the finest of our 21st-century novelists.' --Financial Times
`This is a book to read by the fireside, to be swept along in, to realise - with a start - that hours have gone by...In other words, to rediscover the lost-in-another-world joy of reading. And this book really IS a joy...my favourite book of the year so far.' --Eastern Daily Press
`Taylor's great skill is in characterisation...In this accomplished work [he] has effectively captured the mutable nature of this unsettling period.' --Literary Review
`enjoyable, intelligent and thoroughly entertaining...Highly recommended.' --TheBookBag
`Taylor, with patient stealth, assembles a ring of enjoyably seedy or unprepossessing figures...What distinguishes it from generic thriller-writing is the author's knowledge of the period.' --TLS
`Taylor, as you would expect of such an accomplished novelist and biographer, has immersed himself in the details of the early 1860s. The novel is richly redolent of the novels of Wilkie Collins, Dickens and Thackeray (his admirable biography of the Vanity Fair author has just been reissued). The characters who plot and squirm throughout the course of Derby Day are fully rounded and memorably drawn and the atmosphere is palpable. In fact here is an intelligent novel which is also a genuine page-turner. Truly a terrific read.' --Daily Express Daily Express
`Taylor has written an exceptionally clever pastiche 19th-century novel with a richness of character that almost matches his models of Dickens and Thackeray.' --Sunday Times
`[Taylor's] prose is note-perfect and seems completely natural...Better still, he never forgets the `mystery' part of that promise on the cover.' --The Daily Mail
`Taylor wears his research lightly but there is no doubt how much effort he has expanded..' --Independent on Sunday
'The whole is an engaging drama - escapism of the highest standard.' --Independent on Sunday
`Derby Day is pitch-perfect...It's enormous fun and meticulously researched and conceived.'
--The Guardian
`Taylor, who has written an acclaimed biography of Thackeray, is steeped in authentic detail...Rich and gorgeous as a plum cake, this is absorbing entertainment indeed. --The Times
`As you would expect from somebody steeped in Victorian fictional history, Taylor rarely puts a foot wrong...the colourful events which take place on the Downs should delight any racing enthusiast.' --Racing Post
`There is a rich wealth of many characters, so different they are truly memorable...This is the first novel I have read of DJ Taylor, it won't be my last.' --New Books
`a delicious, highly intelligent page-turner...With clever, confident plotting and meticulous period details, this is an engrossing and deeply satisfying read.' --Good Book Guide
--Condé Nast Traveller
`meticulously plotted and written with bouncy confidence.'
--Spectator
`Derby Day is a triumphant success...in this unputdownable Victorian romp [Taylor] enjoyable proves himself to be one of the finest of our 21st-century novelists.'
--Financial Times
`meticulously plotted and written with bouncy confidence.' --Spectator
`Derby Day is a triumphant success...in this unputdownable Victorian romp [Taylor] enjoyable proves himself to be one of the finest of our 21st-century novelists.' --Financial Times
`This is a book to read by the fireside, to be swept along in, to realise - with a start - that hours have gone by...In other words, to rediscover the lost-in-another-world joy of reading. And this book really IS a joy...my favourite book of the year so far.' --Eastern Daily Press
`Taylor's great skill is in characterisation...In this accomplished work [he] has effectively captured the mutable nature of this unsettling period.' --Literary Review
`enjoyable, intelligent and thoroughly entertaining...Highly recommended.' --TheBookBag
`Taylor, with patient stealth, assembles a ring of enjoyably seedy or unprepossessing figures...What distinguishes it from generic thriller-writing is the author's knowledge of the period.' --TLS
`Taylor, as you would expect of such an accomplished novelist and biographer, has immersed himself in the details of the early 1860s. The novel is richly redolent of the novels of Wilkie Collins, Dickens and Thackeray (his admirable biography of the Vanity Fair author has just been reissued). The characters who plot and squirm throughout the course of Derby Day are fully rounded and memorably drawn and the atmosphere is palpable. In fact here is an intelligent novel which is also a genuine page-turner. Truly a terrific read.' --Daily Express Daily Express
`Taylor has written an exceptionally clever pastiche 19th-century novel with a richness of character that almost matches his models of Dickens and Thackeray.' --Sunday Times
`[Taylor's] prose is note-perfect and seems completely natural...Better still, he never forgets the `mystery' part of that promise on the cover.' --The Daily Mail
`Taylor wears his research lightly but there is no doubt how much effort he has expanded..' --Independent on Sunday
'The whole is an engaging drama - escapism of the highest standard.' --Independent on Sunday
`Derby Day is pitch-perfect...It's enormous fun and meticulously researched and conceived.'
--The Guardian
`Taylor, who has written an acclaimed biography of Thackeray, is steeped in authentic detail...Rich and gorgeous as a plum cake, this is absorbing entertainment indeed. --The Times
`As you would expect from somebody steeped in Victorian fictional history, Taylor rarely puts a foot wrong...the colourful events which take place on the Downs should delight any racing enthusiast.' --Racing Post
`There is a rich wealth of many characters, so different they are truly memorable...This is the first novel I have read of DJ Taylor, it won't be my last.' --New Books
`a delicious, highly intelligent page-turner...With clever, confident plotting and meticulous period details, this is an engrossing and deeply satisfying read.' --Good Book Guide
Book Description
A gripping novel of romance and rivalry, gambling and greed, from acclaimed novelist and biographer D.J. Taylor
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having read and reviewed all the other 2011 Booker longlisted novels, I suppose I ought to complete the set with a review of Derby Day. But on Shortlist Eve, I'm struggling to summon up any enthusiasm for the task.
It's not that Derby Day was a bad novel. In many ways, it was just the sort of thing that floats my boat - a Victorian novel with a convoluted plot, larger than life characters, dastardly villains and heaps of fog. Yet, for all this, it seemed to be a bit of a Me-Too. Every bit as good as any other Victorian mystery (except, perhaps, for Fingersmith and Affinity), but not anything terribly remarkable. The prose was excellent, the story was taut and Mrs Rebecca was surprisingly scheming. The ending felt underplayed which was strange since it seemed to drag on for so long.
One curiosity was the safe cracking scene in the middle. This scene was a re-writing of a near identical scene from Taylor's previous novel: At The Chime Of A City Clock. The detailing had been brought forward 70 years and there were one or two incidental differences, but it was somewhere in excess of 20 pages of recycled material. The retelling was competent; better, even, than the original but it felt odd - all the more so since this strand of the story didn't seem strictly necessary. Perhaps it made Mr Happerton seem slightly more scheming and nefarious although his involvement in the robbery was never quite clear.
If this seems lukewarm, it is perhaps unfair. For the most part, Derby Day was great fun to read and genuinely suspenseful. Some of the characters were terrific, especially Major Hubbins, the jockey - a man of expensive tastes and a pride that is easily piqued. The aforementioned Rebecca is also well drawn and has shades of both black and white. And Captain Raff - a cowardly henchman who completely unsuited to the task.
Some of the period detail is terrific - a level of care and attention which really does convince. Unlike Dickens, DJ Taylor has not followed the easy path of portraying poverty - far more following in the tradition of George Moore in depicting the upper classes at play. Moreover, the occasionally sarcastic narrative voice lifts the text and allows the reader to sneer at the pomposity of it all.
So, overall, a good read. Nearly great.
It's not that Derby Day was a bad novel. In many ways, it was just the sort of thing that floats my boat - a Victorian novel with a convoluted plot, larger than life characters, dastardly villains and heaps of fog. Yet, for all this, it seemed to be a bit of a Me-Too. Every bit as good as any other Victorian mystery (except, perhaps, for Fingersmith and Affinity), but not anything terribly remarkable. The prose was excellent, the story was taut and Mrs Rebecca was surprisingly scheming. The ending felt underplayed which was strange since it seemed to drag on for so long.
One curiosity was the safe cracking scene in the middle. This scene was a re-writing of a near identical scene from Taylor's previous novel: At The Chime Of A City Clock. The detailing had been brought forward 70 years and there were one or two incidental differences, but it was somewhere in excess of 20 pages of recycled material. The retelling was competent; better, even, than the original but it felt odd - all the more so since this strand of the story didn't seem strictly necessary. Perhaps it made Mr Happerton seem slightly more scheming and nefarious although his involvement in the robbery was never quite clear.
If this seems lukewarm, it is perhaps unfair. For the most part, Derby Day was great fun to read and genuinely suspenseful. Some of the characters were terrific, especially Major Hubbins, the jockey - a man of expensive tastes and a pride that is easily piqued. The aforementioned Rebecca is also well drawn and has shades of both black and white. And Captain Raff - a cowardly henchman who completely unsuited to the task.
Some of the period detail is terrific - a level of care and attention which really does convince. Unlike Dickens, DJ Taylor has not followed the easy path of portraying poverty - far more following in the tradition of George Moore in depicting the upper classes at play. Moreover, the occasionally sarcastic narrative voice lifts the text and allows the reader to sneer at the pomposity of it all.
So, overall, a good read. Nearly great.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
'Sky the colour of a fish's underside; grey smoke diffusing over a thousand house-fronts; a wind moving in from the East: London.'
D.J Taylor's Victorian melodrama opens with a description of Clipstone Court, a murky part of London near Tottenham Court Road where murky dealings are taking place in a tavern. The tone is that of a strange genre - the meticulous pastiche of the Victorian novel which engages and intrigues, but which still somehow displays a 21st Century edge and sensibility. The novel starts with background characters, part of the racing and betting world which will draw in all the characters we are introduced to over the course of 404 pages.
In terms of geography the novel ranges from Belgravia to Soho in London, to Lincolnshire and, of course, to Epsom on Derby Day where Tiberius will race for the biggest prize of the season and fortunes will be made and lost. In terms of class D.J Taylor shows us the underside of each class - from the Greshams who skirt upper class respectability, to a farmer on the edge of ruin to the criminal classes and to prosperous lawyers unloved by their families. There are few characters who rise above the murkiness - Mr Glenister, Miss Ecclestone and Captain McTurk who do so remain in the background whilst the foreground is aswirl with the unsavoury dealings of Mr and Mrs Happerton and their confederates. The sociopathic Rebecca Happerton is as manipulative as her namesake in Vanity Fair but far less socially adept and charming. Her husband is wily but does not succeed in gaining our reluctant admiration of a rogue. The strength of this novel is not in the complexity of the individual characters but in the richness of the overall picture that Taylor successfully draws of a complex society, of individuals gambling in every way for their future.
The chapters open with excerpts from contemporary alamanacs and lend authenticity to the tale at the same time as giving it a post-modern twist. The descriptions are excellent from the pathos of the indebted farmer, Davenant,'He has always been fasinated by his ancestors - the yellow faces in their gilt frames, the grey tablets in Scroop charchyard - but now they haunt him' to the desciptions of race day breakfasts and bad oysters. I enoyed this novel, was drawn into the world of Derby Day and as another reviewer here says thought that Taylor nearly pulls off a very good novel indeed.
D.J Taylor's Victorian melodrama opens with a description of Clipstone Court, a murky part of London near Tottenham Court Road where murky dealings are taking place in a tavern. The tone is that of a strange genre - the meticulous pastiche of the Victorian novel which engages and intrigues, but which still somehow displays a 21st Century edge and sensibility. The novel starts with background characters, part of the racing and betting world which will draw in all the characters we are introduced to over the course of 404 pages.
In terms of geography the novel ranges from Belgravia to Soho in London, to Lincolnshire and, of course, to Epsom on Derby Day where Tiberius will race for the biggest prize of the season and fortunes will be made and lost. In terms of class D.J Taylor shows us the underside of each class - from the Greshams who skirt upper class respectability, to a farmer on the edge of ruin to the criminal classes and to prosperous lawyers unloved by their families. There are few characters who rise above the murkiness - Mr Glenister, Miss Ecclestone and Captain McTurk who do so remain in the background whilst the foreground is aswirl with the unsavoury dealings of Mr and Mrs Happerton and their confederates. The sociopathic Rebecca Happerton is as manipulative as her namesake in Vanity Fair but far less socially adept and charming. Her husband is wily but does not succeed in gaining our reluctant admiration of a rogue. The strength of this novel is not in the complexity of the individual characters but in the richness of the overall picture that Taylor successfully draws of a complex society, of individuals gambling in every way for their future.
The chapters open with excerpts from contemporary alamanacs and lend authenticity to the tale at the same time as giving it a post-modern twist. The descriptions are excellent from the pathos of the indebted farmer, Davenant,'He has always been fasinated by his ancestors - the yellow faces in their gilt frames, the grey tablets in Scroop charchyard - but now they haunt him' to the desciptions of race day breakfasts and bad oysters. I enoyed this novel, was drawn into the world of Derby Day and as another reviewer here says thought that Taylor nearly pulls off a very good novel indeed.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Derby Day traces the progress of a disparate group of characters, each of whose fate is pinned on a horse that has been tipped to win the Derby.
The book immerses the reader in the Victorian era and I soon settled into the period language and jargon and read for enjoyment.
The historic details in Derby Day have clearly been minutely researched, and I felt I could really trust the detail(not always the case with historic novels). The scene setting, which moves from the height of Victorian London society to its criminal underclass, away to dampest Lincolnshire and across to France,is fabulously rich - an exiled, bankrupt criminal's haunt in Boulogne is a favourite example.
At times it felt as if Derby Day was trying too hard to be a detective story (though the detective characters were well drawn)and that the ending was compromised as a result. Also, to be honest, some of the technicalities of betting and horse racing form were beyond me.
Overall, Derby Day is an absorbing read, that rewards a little bit of initial effort on the part of the reader. My only question is why on earth the publishers chose this grey and gloomy cover, when they could have had the gorgeous 'Derby Day' by Frith?
The book immerses the reader in the Victorian era and I soon settled into the period language and jargon and read for enjoyment.
The historic details in Derby Day have clearly been minutely researched, and I felt I could really trust the detail(not always the case with historic novels). The scene setting, which moves from the height of Victorian London society to its criminal underclass, away to dampest Lincolnshire and across to France,is fabulously rich - an exiled, bankrupt criminal's haunt in Boulogne is a favourite example.
At times it felt as if Derby Day was trying too hard to be a detective story (though the detective characters were well drawn)and that the ending was compromised as a result. Also, to be honest, some of the technicalities of betting and horse racing form were beyond me.
Overall, Derby Day is an absorbing read, that rewards a little bit of initial effort on the part of the reader. My only question is why on earth the publishers chose this grey and gloomy cover, when they could have had the gorgeous 'Derby Day' by Frith?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A winner
A great Victorian tale, about a horse, Tiberius, a race, the Derby, and a wide cast of colourful characters from all sections of society. Read more
Published 1 month ago by gerardpeter
Derby Day
This is a wonderful read. After the first page you are hooked - it is full of fabulous characters (black, white and grey!). I shall read all of D J Taylors novels after this!
Published 6 months ago by marilyn
Highly enjoyable
It's possible "Derby Day" wasn't nominated for the Man Booker short list because it's too accessible and commercially appealing. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jessica Coleman
Too many nasty characters.
A good story with too many nasty characters. Very well written in the Victorian style and using some unusual "old fashioned" words.
Published 8 months ago by Nosila
A worthy addition to the Vic. Lit. genre, stylistically brilliant but...
Having read D.J.Taylor's earlier Victorian-pastiche novel "Kept", I was eager to read 'Derby Day', particularly as the concept i. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Goth lady
Atmospheric and engaging 'Victorian' novel
There is no doubt that this book draws influences from a range of genuine Victorian novels, not least perhaps those of Wilkie Collins, but it succeeds in being more than a mere... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. N. R. Ash
Oh dear
I purchased this book as I had read reviews in the papers saying how good it was.
I loved the idea that this was a mystery about racing. Read more
I loved the idea that this was a mystery about racing. Read more
Published 11 months ago by History lover
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